Patterned Dielectric Back Contact Design for GaAs Thermophotovoltaic Devices

Arulanandam, Madhan K.; Buencuerpo, Jeronimo; Steiner, Myles A.; Kuritzky, Leah Y.; Young, Alexandra R.; Tervo, Eric J.; Perl, Emmett E. E.; Kayes, Brendan M.; Briggs, Justin A.; King, Richard R.

doi:10.1016/j.solmat.2024.113285

Patterned Dielectric Back Contact Design for GaAs Thermophotovoltaic Devices

Journal Article · Mon Nov 25 00:00:00 EST 2024 · Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2024.113285· OSTI ID:2480815

Arulanandam, Madhan K.; Buencuerpo, Jeronimo; ; Kuritzky, Leah Y.; Young, Alexandra R.; ; Perl, Emmett E. E.; Kayes, Brendan M.; Briggs, Justin A.; King, Richard R.

-Patterned-dielectric back contact structures in optoelectronic devices are designed to boost the reflectance of light from the device back surface while retaining a low-resistance pathway for electrical conductance. Their reduced light absorption at near- and sub-bandgap photon energies leads to improved luminescence in light-emitting diodes, greater photon recycling, voltage, and efficiency in photovoltaic cells, and greater recuperation of unabsorbed sub-bandgap light in thermophotovoltaic (TPV) systems. However, diffraction from the patterned features can deflect incident light in propagation directions that lead to light trapping and parasitic absorption in the cell. In this article, we use rigorous coupled-wave analysis (RCWA) to study three-dimensional diffractive scattering of electromagnetic waves by periodic metal point-contact gratings on 1.42-eV GaAs TPV cells, to analyze their effect on unwanted sub-bandgap absorption in order to achieve higher TPV system efficiency. Solutions of Maxwell's equations calculated using RCWA are compared to measured sub-bandgap reflectance in experimental GaAs TPV devices with varying metal point-contact diameters and spacing. Modeling and experiments indicate decreased total reflectance due to these diffractive effects for a small point contact diameter of 1 ..mu..m, and this effect is much stronger at higher contact coverage fractions.

Research Organization:: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E)

DOE Contract Number:: AC36-08GO28308

OSTI ID:: 2480815

Report Number(s):: NREL/JA-5900-92417; MainId:94198; UUID:72dc535c-f936-4f6f-88f5-62e4f767aa19; MainAdminId:75479

Journal Information:: Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, Vol. 281

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

References (30)

Thermal energy grid storage using multi-junction photovoltaics Amy, Caleb; Seyf, Hamid Reza; Steiner, Myles A. Energy & Environmental Science, Vol. 12, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1039/C8EE02341G	journal	January 2019
Ultra high temperature latent heat energy storage and thermophotovoltaic energy conversion Datas, Alejandro; Ramos, Alba; Martí, Antonio Energy, Vol. 107 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2016.04.048	journal	July 2016
Present Efficiencies and Future Opportunities in Thermophotovoltaics Burger, Tobias; Sempere, Caroline; Roy-Layinde, Bosun Joule, Vol. 4, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joule.2020.06.021	journal	August 2020
Efficient and scalable GaInAs thermophotovoltaic devices Tervo, Eric J.; France, Ryan M.; Friedman, Daniel J. Joule, Vol. 6, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joule.2022.10.002	journal	November 2022
Thermophotovoltaic efficiency of 40% LaPotin, Alina; Schulte, Kevin L.; Steiner, Myles A. Nature, Vol. 604, Issue 7905 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04473-y	journal	April 2022
Point-contact silicon solar cells Swanson, R. M.; Beckwith, S. K.; Crane, R. A. IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, Vol. 31, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1109/T-ED.1984.21586	journal	May 1984
Near-perfect photon utilization in an air-bridge thermophotovoltaic cell Fan, Dejiu; Burger, Tobias; McSherry, Sean Nature, Vol. 586, Issue 7828 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2717-7	journal	September 2020
Development of back side technology for light trapping and photon recycling in GaAs solar cells Micha, Daniel Neves; Höhn, Oliver; Oliva, Eduard Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications, Vol. 27, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1002/pip.3076	journal	October 2018
Increased performance of thin-film GaAs solar cells by rear contact/mirror patterning Gruginskie, N.; van Laar, S. C. W.; Bauhuis, G. Thin Solid Films, Vol. 660 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsf.2018.05.042	journal	August 2018
Point-contact solar cells: Modeling and experiment Swanson, R. M. Solar Cells, Vol. 17, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1016/0379-6787(86)90061-X	journal	March 1986
GaAs thermophotovoltaic patterned dielectric back contact devices with improved sub-bandgap reflectance Arulanandam, Madhan K.; Steiner, Myles A.; Tervo, Eric J. Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, Vol. 238 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2021.111545	journal	May 2022
Upper limits to absorption enhancement in thick solar cells using diffraction gratings Mellor, A.; Tobías, I.; Martí, A. Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications, Vol. 19, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1002/pip.1086	journal	January 2011
Effective medium theory for dispersions of dielectric ellipsoids Giordano, Stefano Journal of Electrostatics, Vol. 58, Issue 1-2 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0304-3886(02)00199-7	journal	May 2003
Engineering the reciprocal space for ultrathin GaAs solar cells Buencuerpo, Jeronimo; Llorens, Jose M.; Ripalda, Jose M. Optics & Laser Technology, Vol. 142 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.optlastec.2021.107224	journal	October 2021
Stable implementation of the rigorous coupled-wave analysis for surface-relief gratings: enhanced transmittance matrix approach Moharam, M. G.; Gaylord, T. K.; Pommet, Drew A. Journal of the Optical Society of America A, Vol. 12, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1364/JOSAA.12.001077	journal	January 1995
Optical constants of silica glass from extreme ultraviolet to far infrared at near room temperature Kitamura, Rei; Pilon, Laurent; Jonasz, Miroslaw Applied Optics, Vol. 46, Issue 33 https://doi.org/10.1364/AO.46.008118	journal	January 2007
Mid-infrared optical properties of thin films of aluminum oxide, titanium dioxide, silicon dioxide, aluminum nitride, and silicon nitride Kischkat, Jan; Peters, Sven; Gruska, Bernd Applied Optics, Vol. 51, Issue 28 https://doi.org/10.1364/AO.51.006789	journal	January 2012
Optical dielectric function of gold Olmon, Robert L.; Slovick, Brian; Johnson, Timothy W. Physical Review B, Vol. 86, Issue 23 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.86.235147	journal	December 2012
Optical dielectric function of silver Yang, Honghua U.; D'Archangel, Jeffrey; Sundheimer, Michael L. Physical Review B, Vol. 91, Issue 23 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.91.235137	journal	June 2015
S⁴ : A free electromagnetic solver for layered periodic structures Liu, Victor; Fan, Shanhui Computer Physics Communications, Vol. 183, Issue 10, p. 2233-2244 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpc.2012.04.026	journal	October 2012
Use of Fourier series in the analysis of discontinuous periodic structures Li, Lifeng Journal of the Optical Society of America A, Vol. 13, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1364/JOSAA.13.001870	journal	January 1996
Maxwell equations in Fourier space: fast-converging formulation for diffraction by arbitrary shaped, periodic, anisotropic media Popov, Evgeny; Nevière, Michel Journal of the Optical Society of America A, Vol. 18, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1364/JOSAA.18.002886	journal	January 2001
Design of tangent vector fields Fisher, Matthew; Schröder, Peter; Desbrun, Mathieu ACM Transactions on Graphics, Vol. 26, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1145/1276377.1276447	journal	July 2007
Fourier's Series Gibbs, J. Willard Nature, Vol. 59, Issue 1522 https://doi.org/10.1038/059200b0	journal	December 1898
Organometallic precursors in the growth of epitaxial thin films of III-V semiconductors by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) Zanella, P.; Rossetto, G.; Brianese, N. Chemistry of Materials, Vol. 3, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1021/cm00014a008	journal	March 1991
Graded buffer Bragg reflectors with high reflectivity and transparency for metamorphic optoelectronics France, R. M.; Buencuerpo, J.; Bradsby, M. Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 129, Issue 17 https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0050588	journal	May 2021
Far field diffraction of gratings with two roughness levels Torcal-Milla, F. J.; Sanchez-Brea, L. M. Journal of Optics, Vol. 21, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1088/2040-8986/ab2bdf	journal	July 2019
Modeling free-carrier absorption in ultrathin III-V solar cells with light management D’Rozario, Julia R.; Polly, Stephen J.; Nelson, George T. Optics Express, Vol. 30, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.452170	journal	February 2022
A 19.9%-efficient ultrathin solar cell based on a 205-nm-thick GaAs absorber and a silver nanostructured back mirror Chen, Hung-Ling; Cattoni, Andrea; De Lépinau, Romaric Nature Energy, Vol. 4, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-019-0434-y	journal	August 2019
Efficient light-trapping in ultrathin GaAs solar cells using quasi-random photonic crystals Buencuerpo, Jeronimo; Saenz, Theresa E.; Steger, Mark Nano Energy, Vol. 96 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nanoen.2022.107080	journal	June 2022

Similar Records

GaAs Thermophotovoltaic Patterned Dielectric Back Contact Devices with Improved Sub-Bandgap Reflectance

Journal Article · Thu Feb 03 00:00:00 EST 2022 · Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells · OSTI ID:1845962

Arulanandam, Madhan K.; Steiner, Myles A.; Tervo, Eric J.; +7 more

Rigorous Coupled Wave Analysis of GaAs Thermophotovoltaic Devices with a Patterned Dielectric Back Contact

Conference · Thu Aug 26 00:00:00 EDT 2021 · OSTI ID:1826666

Arulanadam, Madhan K.; Buencuerpo, Jeronimo; Steiner, Myles A.; +6 more

Optical properties of thin semiconductor device structures with reflective back-surface layers

Conference · Mon Mar 01 00:00:00 EST 1999 · AIP Conference Proceedings · OSTI ID:6097254

Clevenger, M B; Murray, C S; Sacks, R N; +2 more

Related Subjects

SOLAR ENERGY
diffraction grating
efficiency
GaAs
patterned dielectric back contact
rigorous coupled wave analysis
sub-bandgap spectrum
thermophotovoltaics

Patterned Dielectric Back Contact Design for GaAs Thermophotovoltaic Devices

Citation Formats

References (30)

Similar Records

Related Subjects