Coupled optoelectronic simulation and optimization of thin-film photovoltaic solar cells

Tom H. Anderson; Benjamin J. Civiletti; Peter B. Monk; Akhlesh Lakhtakia

doi:10.1016/j.jcp.2020.109242

Coupled optoelectronic simulation and optimization of thin-film photovoltaic solar cells

Tom H. Anderson, Benjamin J. Civiletti, Peter B. Monk, Akhlesh Lakhtakia

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

17 Scopus citations

Abstract

A design tool was formulated for optimizing the efficiency of inorganic, thin-film, photovoltaic solar cells. The solar cell can have multiple semiconductor layers in addition to antireflection coatings, passivation layers, and buffer layers. The solar cell is backed by a metallic grating which is periodic along a fixed direction. The rigorous coupled-wave approach is used to calculate the electron-hole-pair generation rate. The hybridizable discontinuous Galerkin method is used to solve the drift-diffusion equations that govern charge-carrier transport in the semiconductor layers. The chief output is the solar-cell efficiency which is maximized using the differential evolution algorithm to determine the optimal dimensions and bandgaps of the semiconductor layers.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	109242
Journal	Journal of Computational Physics
Volume	407
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcp.2020.109242
State	Published - Apr 15 2020

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

Numerical Analysis
Modeling and Simulation
Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)
General Physics and Astronomy
Computer Science Applications
Computational Mathematics
Applied Mathematics

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10.1016/j.jcp.2020.109242

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title = "Coupled optoelectronic simulation and optimization of thin-film photovoltaic solar cells",

abstract = "A design tool was formulated for optimizing the efficiency of inorganic, thin-film, photovoltaic solar cells. The solar cell can have multiple semiconductor layers in addition to antireflection coatings, passivation layers, and buffer layers. The solar cell is backed by a metallic grating which is periodic along a fixed direction. The rigorous coupled-wave approach is used to calculate the electron-hole-pair generation rate. The hybridizable discontinuous Galerkin method is used to solve the drift-diffusion equations that govern charge-carrier transport in the semiconductor layers. The chief output is the solar-cell efficiency which is maximized using the differential evolution algorithm to determine the optimal dimensions and bandgaps of the semiconductor layers.",

author = "Anderson, {Tom H.} and Civiletti, {Benjamin J.} and Monk, {Peter B.} and Akhlesh Lakhtakia",

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year = "2020",

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doi = "10.1016/j.jcp.2020.109242",

language = "English (US)",

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AU - Anderson, Tom H.

AU - Civiletti, Benjamin J.

AU - Monk, Peter B.

AU - Lakhtakia, Akhlesh

PY - 2020/4/15

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AB - A design tool was formulated for optimizing the efficiency of inorganic, thin-film, photovoltaic solar cells. The solar cell can have multiple semiconductor layers in addition to antireflection coatings, passivation layers, and buffer layers. The solar cell is backed by a metallic grating which is periodic along a fixed direction. The rigorous coupled-wave approach is used to calculate the electron-hole-pair generation rate. The hybridizable discontinuous Galerkin method is used to solve the drift-diffusion equations that govern charge-carrier transport in the semiconductor layers. The chief output is the solar-cell efficiency which is maximized using the differential evolution algorithm to determine the optimal dimensions and bandgaps of the semiconductor layers.

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Coupled optoelectronic simulation and optimization of thin-film photovoltaic solar cells

Abstract

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