5/13/2020 Light Trapping I - Absorption and Optical Losses: Questions | 3.

s: Questions | 3.3 Solar Cell Design Rules | ET3034x Courseware | edX

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Course  Week 3…  3.3 Sol…  Light T…

Light Trapping I - Absorption and Optical Losses:

Questions
Practice Question 3.3.7
1/1 point (ungraded)
Consider an incoming monochromatic light beam of wavelength λ = 800nm incident on
a c-Si layer. How thick should the layer be (in μm) in order to absorb 90% of the incoming
light? Assume the absorption coe cient at λ = 800nm to be α = 103 cm−1 .

23  Answer: 23

Explanation
The Lambert-Beer law describes how the intensity of the light beam decays as it
propagates through an absorbing medium with a certain absorption coe cient α (λ) :
−α(λ)x
I = I0 e

If we solve for the depth x we have:

1 I
x = − ln ( )
α(λ) Io

If the layer absorbs 90% of the incoming light, it means that the intensity at the end of the
layer is I = 0.1I0 or, in other words, I /I0 = 0.1 . Using the given
, we can solve for x:
3 −1
α (800nm) = 10 cm
1
x = − 3
ln (0.1) = 0.0023 cm = 23 μm
10

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Practice Question 3.3.8

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5/13/2020 Light Trapping I - Absorption and Optical Losses: Questions | 3.3 Solar Cell Design Rules | ET3034x Courseware | edX

1/1 point (ungraded)

The typical thickness of the absorber layer of a c-Si solar cell is around 300μm. Assume
that the absorption coe cient for infrared light is α (1100nm) = 10cm−1 . How much
of the light with λ = 1100nm coming from the AM1.5 spectrum is not absorbed by the
absorber layer? Give the answer as a percentage of the incident intensity I0 .

74  Answer: 74

Explanation
The Lambert-Beer law describes how the intensity of the light beam decays as it
propagates through an absorbing medium with a certain absorption coe cient α (λ) :
−α(λ)x
I = I0 e

Using the given α = 10cm

−1
and x = 300μm we have
−4
I 1 10 cm
= exp [−10 300μm] = 0.74
I0 cm μm

This means that when the light arrives to the end of the absorber layer, it has an intensity
of I = 0.74 I0 . In other words, 74% of the incoming intensity I0 was not absorbed.

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Topic: Week 3: Practice Questions / Practice Questions: PQ3.3.7-3.3.8

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