Broadband omnidirectional antireflection (AR) coating based on inverse transfer design towards high efficiency photovoltaic cells

Patrick Oduor; Varun Menon; Zunaid Omair; Kwong-Kit Choi; Achyut K. Dutta

doi:10.1117/12.2669305

15 June 2023 Broadband omnidirectional antireflection (AR) coating based on inverse transfer design towards high efficiency photovoltaic cells

Patrick Oduor, Varun Menon, Zunaid Omair, Kwong-Kit Choi, Achyut K. Dutta

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 12513, Energy Harvesting and Storage: Materials, Devices, and Applications XIII; 125130G (2023) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2669305
Event: SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing, 2023, Orlando, Florida, United States

Abstract

The solar spectrum reaching Earth spans from ultraviolet to infrared wavelengths with a cutoff at around 2.5 μm. About 30% of the irradiance is absorbed by the atmosphere, and the rest is absorbed by the Earth's surface. The radiance available for generating renewable energy ranges from 400 nm to 2.0 μm. Silicon and III-V materials are used for photovoltaic (PV) cells. The PV cells reflect 30% of incoming radiation and to reduce this reflection, antireflection coating (ARC) is being used. Conventional techniques such as single or stacked multi-layer ARC or micro-nanostructures ARC are used. However, they lack in providing broadband and omnidirectional transmission, which limits its conversion efficiency in today’s PV cells. We present broadband ARC achieved with an inverse transfer design, a prospect towards significantly high conversion efficiency PV cells. The ARC exhibit significantly increased transmission more than 96% over the solar spectrum ranges up to 2.5 μm, even with wide angles of incidence from ~ 0° to >70°. This transmission over the same angles of incidence, is significantly higher than that of ARC based on quarter-wavelength optical thickness (QWOT), a state-of-art ARC. The results also rival the transmission performance of state-of-the-art nanostructure-based ARC even at large angles of incidence, but are significantly easier to fabricate using standard e-beam evaporation and/or sputtering. The results show over broadband spectrum ranges, radiation back due to reflection makes to zero, leading to significantly increased conversion efficiency of the PV cells.

Citation Download Citation

Patrick Oduor, Varun Menon, Zunaid Omair, Kwong-Kit Choi, and Achyut K. Dutta "Broadband omnidirectional antireflection (AR) coating based on inverse transfer design towards high efficiency photovoltaic cells", Proc. SPIE 12513, Energy Harvesting and Storage: Materials, Devices, and Applications XIII, 125130G (15 June 2023); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2669305

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available

Members: $17.00

Non-members: $21.00 ADD TO CART

PROCEEDINGS
13 PAGES

DOWNLOAD PAPER SAVE TO MY LIBRARY

GET CITATION

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

Get copyright permission Get copyright permission on Copyright Marketplace

KEYWORDS

Solar cells

Antireflective coatings

Design and modelling

Coating thickness

Refractive index

Reflection

Mathematical optimization

Show All Keywords

Keywords/Phrases

Search In:

Publication Years