The reflectances of a thin-film solar cell were computed, using the rigorous coupled-wave approach, as functions of the angle of incidence and the free-space wavelength for illumination by linearly polarized plane waves. The metallic back-reflector was taken to be periodically corrugated and the solar cell was considered to be a tandem solar cell made of amorphous-silicon alloys. Low-reflectance bands in the reflectance spectrums were correlated with the solutions of the underlying canonical boundary-value problem to delineate the excitation of surface plasmon-polariton (SPP) waves. The total reflectance was lowered in the near-infrared spectral regime when multiple SPP waves of both linear polarization states were excited, thereby enhancing the absorption of light.

Date Published: 25 March 2013
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 8620, Physics, Simulation, and Photonic Engineering of Photovoltaic Devices II, 862005 (25 March 2013); doi: 10.1117/12.2003190

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 8620:
Physics, Simulation, and Photonic Engineering of Photovoltaic Devices II
Alexandre Freundlich; Jean-Francois Guillemoles, Editor(s)