Characteristics of highly efficient star-shaped nanowires solar cell

Ghada Yassin Abdel-Latif; Mohamed Farhat O. Hameed; Mohamed Hussein; Maher Abdel Razzak; Salah S. A. Obayya

doi:10.1117/1.JPE.8.047001

4 October 2018 Characteristics of highly efficient star-shaped nanowires solar cell

Ghada Yassin Abdel-Latif, Mohamed Farhat O. Hameed, Mohamed Hussein, Maher Abdel Razzak, Salah S. A. Obayya

Author Affiliations +

Journal of Photonics for Energy, Vol. 8, Issue 4, 047001 (October 2018). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JPE.8.047001

Abstract

The optical characteristics of a star-shaped silicon nanowires (Si NWs) solar cell (SC) are numerically studied using three-dimensional (3-D) finite-difference time-domain (FDTD). The particle swarm optimization technique is used to optimize the geometrical parameters of the NW to maximize its light absorption. The optimized star-shaped Si NWs offer high ultimate efficiency (η) of 43.7% while its complementary design achieves η of 40.1%. This is due to the star surface textures that allow multiple light scattering between the NWs. This will increase the optical path length through the NW and improve its light absorption. The electrical properties of the proposed design are also calculated using the finite-element method. In this investigation, the doping level of the star-shaped Si NWs with p − i − n axial and radial configurations is simulated to quantify the optoelectronic performance of the reported design. The p − i − n axial doped design offers power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 21%; however, the p − i − n radial doping gives PCE of 21.3%. Therefore, the star-shaped design violates PCE of 17.3% and 15.9% of the conventional Si NWs with axial and radial doping, respectively.

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Ghada Yassin Abdel-Latif, Mohamed Farhat O. Hameed, Mohamed Hussein, Maher Abdel Razzak, and Salah S. A. Obayya "Characteristics of highly efficient star-shaped nanowires solar cell," Journal of Photonics for Energy 8(4), 047001 (4 October 2018). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JPE.8.047001

Received: 4 May 2018; Accepted: 8 September 2018; Published: 4 October 2018

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