Increasing Solar Energy Conversion Efficiency in Hydrogenated Amorphous Silicon Photovoltaic Devices with Plasmonic Perfect Meta-Absorbers

PI：Guney, Durdu 提案编号：1235750 机构：密歇根理工大学 标题：利用等离激元完美元吸收器提高氢化非晶硅光伏器件的太阳能转换效率 太阳能光伏 (PV) 能量转换是满足社会能源需求的技术上可行且可持续的解决方案，但必须进一步降低成本才能广泛采用。氢化非晶硅 (a-Si:H) 是一种廉价且容易获得的地球丰富的太阳能电池材料，它将彻底改变我们生产清洁可持续能源的能力。采用 a-Si:H 制成的光伏电池在所有商业光伏设备中具有最快的能量回收时间，因此对于应对气候变化最有用。不幸的是，光引起的 a-Si:H 电子性能退化限制了它们的整体效率。该项目设想超材料范式将允许比传统光学增强在理论上更有效地管理来自太阳的光以进行光伏转换。例如，照射在金属表面上的太阳光与金属中自由电子的集体振荡相互作用时，会沿着表面产生波。这些表面波被称为表面等离子体激元，可用于制造等离子体超材料“完美的吸收器”。 （等离子体完美元吸收剂）可提高太阳能光伏设备的效率。 Perfectmeta-absorber 可以设计为具有宽带、偏振无关和广角光学吸收特性。这些关键特性是太阳能电池设计的大多数光学增强方案所缺乏的，但它们是最大限度提高太阳能电池效率的理想要求。例如，广角接收对于提高曲面的太阳能转换效率以及最大化电池板对太阳光的时间和空间响应尤其重要。在该项目中，将优化等离子体完美元吸收器以实现最大太阳能转换效率。高转换效率将源自整个太阳光谱上的偏振无关操作和广角接收。该吸收器将与 a-Si:H PV 器件集成，并展示如何将光学吸收集中到所需的半导体区域，以显着提高整体转换效率。 此外，使用这些吸收剂将有可能制造超薄太阳能电池。光学增强将通过减少电池的厚度来直接减少电池中的斯塔布勒-朗斯基效应的影响。这将通过两种方式降低a-Si:H PV的平准化电力成本：1）由于更薄的i层带来更高的吞吐量而降低初始成本；2）通过增强的光捕获提高能量转换效率。该提案中的概念也可以推广到可通过紫外频率在太赫兹上调谐的超高效/灵敏光电探测器/传感器。此外，该项目还将在学术和工业协作环境中为两名研究生提供专业和智力培训。

PI: Guney, DurduProposal Number: 1235750Institution: Michigan Technological UniversityTitle: Increasing Solar Energy Conversion Efficiency in Hydrogenated Amorphous Silicon Photovoltaic Devices with Plasmonic Perfect Meta-AbsorbersSolar photovoltaic (PV) energy conversion is a technically viable and sustainable solution to society's energy needs, but the costs must be further reduced for widespread adoption. Hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) is an inexpensive and readily available earth abundant solar cell material, which stands to revolutionize our capability for generating clean sustainable energy. PV cells made with a-Si:H have the fastest energy payback time of any commercial PV device and are therefore the most useful for combating climate change. Unfortunately, the light induced degradation of the electronic properties of a-Si:H limits their overall efficiency. This project envisions that the metamaterial paradigm will allow for managing light from the sun for photovoltaic conversion more efficiently than is theoretically possible with traditional optical enhancement. For example, solar light impinging on a metal surface produces waves along the surface when it interacts with the collective oscillations of free electrons in the metal. These surface waves referred to as surface plasmon polaritons, can be exploited to make plasmonic metamaterial ?perfect absorbers? (plasmonic perfect meta-absorbers) to enhance the efficiency of solar PV devices. Perfectmeta-absorbers can be designed with broadband, polarization-independent, and wide-angle optical absorption features. These critical features, lacking in most optical enhancement schemes for solar cell designs, are ideally required to maximize the efficiency of solar cells. Wide-angle reception, for example, is particularly important to increase solar energy conversion efficiency for curved surfaces, and for maximized temporal and spatial response of the panels to solar light.In this project, a plasmonic perfect meta-absorber will be optimized for maximum solar energy conversion efficiency. High conversion efficiency will be derived from polarization-independentoperation over the entire solar spectrum with a wide-angle reception. This absorber will be integrated with a-Si:H PV device and shown how to focus the optical absorption to the desired semiconducting regions to significantly enhance the overall conversion efficiency. Additionally, it will be possible to make ultra-thin solar cells using these absorbers.The optical enhancement will directly reduce the effects of Staebler-Wronski Effect in the cells by allowing their thicknesses to be decreased. This will result in the reduction in the levelized cost of electricity of a-Si:H PV by two means: 1) reduction in initial cost because of higher throughput from thinner i-layers and 2) improved energy conversion efficiency from enhanced light capturing. The concept in this proposal can be also extrapolated to ultra-high efficient/sensitive photodetectors/sensors tunable over THz through UV frequencies. Additionally, this project will provide professional and intellectual training for two graduate students in an academic and industrial collaborative environment.