3D-printed external light trap for solar cells

Lourens Van Dijk; Ulrich W. Paetzold; Gerhard A. Blab; Ruud E.I. Schropp; Marcel Di Vece

doi:10.1002/pip.2702

3D-printed external light trap for solar cells

Lourens Van Dijk^*
, Ulrich W. Paetzold
, Gerhard A. Blab
, Ruud E.I. Schropp
, Marcel Di Vece

^*Corresponding author for this work

Sub Molecular Biophysics

Jülich Research Centre

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

Abstract

We present a universally applicable 3D-printed external light trap for enhanced absorption in solar cells. The macroscopic external light trap is placed at the sun-facing surface of the solar cell and retro-reflects the light that would otherwise escape. The light trap consists of a reflective parabolic concentrator placed on top of a reflective cage. Upon placement of the light trap, an improvement of 15% of both the photocurrent and the power conversion efficiency in a thin-film nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si:H) solar cell is measured. The trapped light traverses the solar cell several times within the reflective cage thereby increasing the total absorption in the cell. Consequently, the trap reduces optical losses and enhances the absorption over the entire spectrum. The components of the light trap are 3D printed and made of smoothened, silver-coated thermoplastic. In contrast to conventional light trapping methods, external light trapping leaves the material quality and the electrical properties of the solar cell unaffected. To explain the theoretical operation of the external light trap, we introduce a model that predicts the absorption enhancement in the solar cell by the external light trap. The corresponding calculated path length enhancement shows good agreement with the empirically derived value from the opto-electrical data of the solar cell. Moreover, we analyze the influence of the angle of incidence on the parasitic absorptance to obtain full understanding of the trap performance.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	623-633
Number of pages	11
Journal	Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications
Volume	24
Issue number	5
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/pip.2702
Publication status	Published - 1 May 2016

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The authors acknowledge the insightful discussions with and help of J. van de Groep, J.K. Rath, T. van der Beek, U. Rau, K. Bittkau, and E.A.P. Marcus. The authors are grateful for the technical assistance from N.J. Bakker, T. van den Driesschen, D. Lamers, and H. Zeijlemaker. We thank T. Merdzhanova, D. Weigand, and U. Gerhards for the fabrication of the solar cell. The authors are grateful to the Amsterdam Nanocenter at the FOM Institute AMOLF for the use of the clean room and to ECN for using their characterization facilities. This work was supported by the NanoNextNL, a micro and nanotechnology consortium of the Government of the Netherlands and 130 partners. We also acknowledge the funding provided by the Marie Curie Career Integration Grant and the Postdoc-Program of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). The collaboration between the Forschungszentrum J?lich GmbH (IEK5-Photovoltaik), Utrecht University, ECN, and Eindhoven University of Technology was initiated within the Solliance Research Program. We acknowledge the makers of OpenSCAD for freely distributing their software [60].

Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 The Authors. Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Funding

The authors acknowledge the insightful discussions with and help of J. van de Groep, J.K. Rath, T. van der Beek, U. Rau, K. Bittkau, and E.A.P. Marcus. The authors are grateful for the technical assistance from N.J. Bakker, T. van den Driesschen, D. Lamers, and H. Zeijlemaker. We thank T. Merdzhanova, D. Weigand, and U. Gerhards for the fabrication of the solar cell. The authors are grateful to the Amsterdam Nanocenter at the FOM Institute AMOLF for the use of the clean room and to ECN for using their characterization facilities. This work was supported by the NanoNextNL, a micro and nanotechnology consortium of the Government of the Netherlands and 130 partners. We also acknowledge the funding provided by the Marie Curie Career Integration Grant and the Postdoc-Program of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). The collaboration between the Forschungszentrum J?lich GmbH (IEK5-Photovoltaik), Utrecht University, ECN, and Eindhoven University of Technology was initiated within the Solliance Research Program. We acknowledge the makers of OpenSCAD for freely distributing their software [60].

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 7 Affordable and Clean Energy

Keywords

3D printing
anti-reflection
compound parabolic concentrator (CPC)
external light trapping
thin-film solar cells

Access to Document

10.1002/pip.2702Licence: CC BY-NC

Progress in Photovoltaics - 2015 - Dijk - 3D‐printed external light trap for solar cellsFinal published version, 4.33 MBLicence: CC BY-NC

Cite this

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title = "3D-printed external light trap for solar cells",

abstract = "We present a universally applicable 3D-printed external light trap for enhanced absorption in solar cells. The macroscopic external light trap is placed at the sun-facing surface of the solar cell and retro-reflects the light that would otherwise escape. The light trap consists of a reflective parabolic concentrator placed on top of a reflective cage. Upon placement of the light trap, an improvement of 15\% of both the photocurrent and the power conversion efficiency in a thin-film nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si:H) solar cell is measured. The trapped light traverses the solar cell several times within the reflective cage thereby increasing the total absorption in the cell. Consequently, the trap reduces optical losses and enhances the absorption over the entire spectrum. The components of the light trap are 3D printed and made of smoothened, silver-coated thermoplastic. In contrast to conventional light trapping methods, external light trapping leaves the material quality and the electrical properties of the solar cell unaffected. To explain the theoretical operation of the external light trap, we introduce a model that predicts the absorption enhancement in the solar cell by the external light trap. The corresponding calculated path length enhancement shows good agreement with the empirically derived value from the opto-electrical data of the solar cell. Moreover, we analyze the influence of the angle of incidence on the parasitic absorptance to obtain full understanding of the trap performance.",

keywords = "3D printing, anti-reflection, compound parabolic concentrator (CPC), external light trapping, thin-film solar cells",

author = "Dijk, \{Lourens Van\} and Paetzold, \{Ulrich W.\} and Blab, \{Gerhard A.\} and Schropp, \{Ruud E.I.\} and \{Di Vece\}, Marcel",

note = "Funding Information: The authors acknowledge the insightful discussions with and help of J. van de Groep, J.K. Rath, T. van der Beek, U. Rau, K. Bittkau, and E.A.P. Marcus. The authors are grateful for the technical assistance from N.J. Bakker, T. van den Driesschen, D. Lamers, and H. Zeijlemaker. We thank T. Merdzhanova, D. Weigand, and U. Gerhards for the fabrication of the solar cell. The authors are grateful to the Amsterdam Nanocenter at the FOM Institute AMOLF for the use of the clean room and to ECN for using their characterization facilities. This work was supported by the NanoNextNL, a micro and nanotechnology consortium of the Government of the Netherlands and 130 partners. We also acknowledge the funding provided by the Marie Curie Career Integration Grant and the Postdoc-Program of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). The collaboration between the Forschungszentrum J?lich GmbH (IEK5-Photovoltaik), Utrecht University, ECN, and Eindhoven University of Technology was initiated within the Solliance Research Program. We acknowledge the makers of OpenSCAD for freely distributing their software [60]. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2015 The Authors. Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications published by John Wiley \& Sons, Ltd.",

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doi = "10.1002/pip.2702",

language = "English",

volume = "24",

pages = "623--633",

journal = "Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications",

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T1 - 3D-printed external light trap for solar cells

AU - Dijk, Lourens Van

AU - Paetzold, Ulrich W.

AU - Blab, Gerhard A.

AU - Schropp, Ruud E.I.

AU - Di Vece, Marcel

N1 - Funding Information: The authors acknowledge the insightful discussions with and help of J. van de Groep, J.K. Rath, T. van der Beek, U. Rau, K. Bittkau, and E.A.P. Marcus. The authors are grateful for the technical assistance from N.J. Bakker, T. van den Driesschen, D. Lamers, and H. Zeijlemaker. We thank T. Merdzhanova, D. Weigand, and U. Gerhards for the fabrication of the solar cell. The authors are grateful to the Amsterdam Nanocenter at the FOM Institute AMOLF for the use of the clean room and to ECN for using their characterization facilities. This work was supported by the NanoNextNL, a micro and nanotechnology consortium of the Government of the Netherlands and 130 partners. We also acknowledge the funding provided by the Marie Curie Career Integration Grant and the Postdoc-Program of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). The collaboration between the Forschungszentrum J?lich GmbH (IEK5-Photovoltaik), Utrecht University, ECN, and Eindhoven University of Technology was initiated within the Solliance Research Program. We acknowledge the makers of OpenSCAD for freely distributing their software [60]. Publisher Copyright: © 2015 The Authors. Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PY - 2016/5/1

Y1 - 2016/5/1

N2 - We present a universally applicable 3D-printed external light trap for enhanced absorption in solar cells. The macroscopic external light trap is placed at the sun-facing surface of the solar cell and retro-reflects the light that would otherwise escape. The light trap consists of a reflective parabolic concentrator placed on top of a reflective cage. Upon placement of the light trap, an improvement of 15% of both the photocurrent and the power conversion efficiency in a thin-film nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si:H) solar cell is measured. The trapped light traverses the solar cell several times within the reflective cage thereby increasing the total absorption in the cell. Consequently, the trap reduces optical losses and enhances the absorption over the entire spectrum. The components of the light trap are 3D printed and made of smoothened, silver-coated thermoplastic. In contrast to conventional light trapping methods, external light trapping leaves the material quality and the electrical properties of the solar cell unaffected. To explain the theoretical operation of the external light trap, we introduce a model that predicts the absorption enhancement in the solar cell by the external light trap. The corresponding calculated path length enhancement shows good agreement with the empirically derived value from the opto-electrical data of the solar cell. Moreover, we analyze the influence of the angle of incidence on the parasitic absorptance to obtain full understanding of the trap performance.

AB - We present a universally applicable 3D-printed external light trap for enhanced absorption in solar cells. The macroscopic external light trap is placed at the sun-facing surface of the solar cell and retro-reflects the light that would otherwise escape. The light trap consists of a reflective parabolic concentrator placed on top of a reflective cage. Upon placement of the light trap, an improvement of 15% of both the photocurrent and the power conversion efficiency in a thin-film nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si:H) solar cell is measured. The trapped light traverses the solar cell several times within the reflective cage thereby increasing the total absorption in the cell. Consequently, the trap reduces optical losses and enhances the absorption over the entire spectrum. The components of the light trap are 3D printed and made of smoothened, silver-coated thermoplastic. In contrast to conventional light trapping methods, external light trapping leaves the material quality and the electrical properties of the solar cell unaffected. To explain the theoretical operation of the external light trap, we introduce a model that predicts the absorption enhancement in the solar cell by the external light trap. The corresponding calculated path length enhancement shows good agreement with the empirically derived value from the opto-electrical data of the solar cell. Moreover, we analyze the influence of the angle of incidence on the parasitic absorptance to obtain full understanding of the trap performance.

KW - 3D printing

KW - anti-reflection

KW - compound parabolic concentrator (CPC)

KW - external light trapping

KW - thin-film solar cells

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/84963610798

U2 - 10.1002/pip.2702

DO - 10.1002/pip.2702

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:84963610798

SN - 1062-7995

VL - 24

SP - 623

EP - 633

JO - Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications

JF - Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications

IS - 5

ER -

3D-printed external light trap for solar cells

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

UN SDGs

Keywords

Access to Document

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