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Synergistically Enhanced Performance of Ultrathin Nanostructured Silicon Solar Cells Embedded in Plasmonically Assisted, Multispectral Luminescent Waveguides

Journal Article · · ACS Nano
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [2];  [3];  [3];  [3];  [2];  [3]
  1. Kookmin Univ., Seoul (Korea, Republic of). School of Materials Science and Engineering
  2. Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA (United States). Dept. of Chemistry
  3. Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA (United States). Dept. of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
+ Show Author Affiliations

Ultrathin silicon solar cells fabricated by anisotropic wet chemical etching of single-crystalline wafer materials represent an attractive materials platform that could provide many advantages for realizing high-performance, low-cost photovoltaics. However, their intrinsically limited photovoltaic performance arising from insufficient absorption of low-energy photons demands careful design of light management to maximize the efficiency and preserve the cost-effectiveness of solar cells. Herein we present an integrated flexible solar module of ultrathin, nanostructured silicon solar cells capable of simultaneously exploiting spectral upconversion and downshifting in conjunction with multispectral luminescent waveguides and a nanostructured plasmonic reflector to compensate for their weak optical absorption and enhance their performance. The 8 $$μ$$m-thick silicon solar cells incorporating a hexagonally periodic nanostructured surface relief are surface-embedded in layered multispectral luminescent media containing organic dyes and NaYF4:Yb3+,Er3+ nanocrystals as downshifting and upconverting luminophores, respectively, via printing-enabled deterministic materials assembly. The ultrathin nanostructured silicon microcells in the composite luminescent waveguide exhibit strongly augmented photocurrent (~40.1 mA/cm2) and energy conversion efficiency (~12.8%) than devices with only a single type of luminescent species, owing to the synergistic contributions from optical downshifting, plasmonically enhanced upconversion, and waveguided photon flux for optical concentration, where the short-circuit current density increased by ~13.6 mA/cm2 compared with microcells in a nonluminescent medium on a plain silver reflector under a confined illumination.

Research Organization:
Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) (United States). Center for Energy Nanoscience (CEN)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0001013
OSTI ID:
1397188
Journal Information:
ACS Nano, Journal Name: ACS Nano Journal Issue: 4 Vol. 11; ISSN 1936-0851
Publisher:
American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Cited By (2)

Cerium and Ytterbium Codoped Halide Perovskite Quantum Dots: A Novel and Efficient Downconverter for Improving the Performance of Silicon Solar Cells journal September 2017
Improved efficiency of polymer solar cells by plasmonically enhanced photon recycling journal January 2019

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Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
luminescent solar concentrator
photovoltaics
plasmonic nanostructure
silicon solar cells
upconversion