Design of light scattering in nanowire materials for photovoltaic applications
| Abstract | We experimentally investigate the optical properties of layers of InP,Si, and GaP nanowires, relevant for applications in solar cells. Thenanowires are strongly photonic, resulting in a significant couplingmismatch with incident light due to multiple scattering. We identify adesign principle for the effective suppression of reflective losses,based on the ratio of the nondiffusive absorption and diffusivescattering lengths. Using this principle, we demonstrate successfulsuppression of the hemispherical diffuse reflectance of InP nanowires tobelow that of the corresponding transparent effective medium. The designof light scattering in nanowire materials is of large importance foroptimization of the external efficiency of nanowire-based photovoltaicdevices. |
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| Authors | O. L. Muskens, J. Gómez Rivas, R. E. Algra, E. P. A. M. Bakkers, and A. Lagendijk |
| Year of publication | 2008 |
| Date published | 08/2008 |
| Journal | Nano Lett. |
| Volume | 8 |
| Pages | 2638-2642 |
| Keywords | GaP, InP, multiple scattering, nanowires, photovoltaic devices |