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

利用等离激元完美超吸收体提高氢化非晶硅光伏器件的太阳能转换效率

• 批准号: 1235750
• 负责人: Durdu Guney
• 金额: $ 29.96万
• 依托单位: Michigan Technological University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-09-01 至 2016-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1235750&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Increasing; Solar; Energy; Conversion; Efficiency

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.

主要研究者：Guney，Durdu提案编号：1235750机构：密歇根理工大学标题：提高太阳能转换效率的氢化非晶硅光伏器件与等离子体完美元吸收器太阳能光伏（PV）能量转换是一个技术上可行的和可持续的解决方案，社会的能源需求，但成本必须进一步降低广泛采用。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，其将彻底改变我们产生清洁可持续能源的能力。用a-Si：H制造的光伏电池具有任何商业光伏器件中最快的能量回收期，因此在应对气候变化方面最有用。不幸的是，a-Si：H的电子性质的光致退化限制了它们的整体效率。该项目设想，超材料范例将允许管理来自太阳的光进行光伏转换，比传统光学增强理论上更有效。例如，太阳光照射在金属表面上，当它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，可以用来制造等离子体超材料？完美的吸收体（等离子体激元完美元吸收器）来提高太阳能PV器件的效率。理想的超吸收体可以被设计成具有宽带、偏振无关和广角光学吸收特征。这些关键特征是太阳能电池设计中大多数光学增强方案所缺乏的，理想情况下需要最大限度地提高太阳能电池的效率。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面板对太阳光的时间和空间响应尤为重要。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。高转换效率将来自于在整个太阳光谱范围内与偏振无关的操作，并具有广角接收。该吸收体将与a-Si：H PV器件集成，并展示了如何将光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，利用这些吸收体还可以制造超薄太阳能电池，通过减小电池厚度，光学增强将直接降低电池中的Staebler-Wronski效应。这将通过两种方式降低a-Si：H PV的平准化电力成本：1）由于来自较薄i层的较高产量而降低初始成本，以及2）由于增强的光捕获而提高能量转换效率。该提案中的概念也可以外推到在THz至UV频率范围内可调谐的超高效率/灵敏光电探测器/传感器。此外，该项目将在学术和工业合作环境中为两名研究生提供专业和智力培训。