Partially-disordered photonic-crystal thin films for enhanced and robust photovoltaics

TL;DR

This paper introduces a design framework for thin-film photovoltaics using partially-disordered photonic crystals, achieving enhanced light absorption and robustness against incident angle and polarization variations.

Contribution

It demonstrates how controlled disorder in photonic crystal lattices broadens resonant peaks, improving photovoltaic efficiency and stability under real-world conditions.

Findings

Optimal disorder broadens resonant peaks

Enhanced light trapping in disordered structures

Reduced sensitivity to incident angle and polarization

Abstract

We present a general framework for the design of thin-film photovoltaics based on a partially-disordered photonic crystal that has both enhanced absorption for light trapping and reduced sensitivity to the angle and polarization of incident radiation. The absorption characteristics of different lattice structures are investigated as an initial periodic structure is gradually perturbed. We find that an optimal amount of disorder controllably introduced into a multi-lattice photonic crystal causes the characteristic narrow-band, resonant peaks to be broadened resulting in a device with enhanced and robust performance ideal for typical operating conditions of photovoltaic applications.