See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/319488886

Photonic band gap materials and monolayer solar cell

Article  in  Surface Review and Letters · September 2017

DOI: 10.1142/S0218625X18501032

CITATIONS READS

3 388

2 authors:

Arafa H Aly Hassan Sayed

Beni Suef University Beni Suef University
150 PUBLICATIONS   1,302 CITATIONS    5 PUBLICATIONS   21 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Extraordinary optical properties of a superconducting periodic multilayer in near-zero-permittivity operation range View project

Maximization of Photonic Bandgaps in Two-Dimensional Superconductor Photonic Crystals View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Hassan Sayed on 05 June 2018.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 Surface Review and Letters, Vol. 25, No. 8 (2018) 1850103 (6 pages)
°c World Scienti¯c Publishing Company
DOI: 10.1142/S0218625X18501032

PHOTONIC BAND GAP MATERIALS

AND MONOLAYER SOLAR CELL

ARAFA H. ALY* and HASSAN SAYED

Physics Department, Faculty of Sciences,
Beni-Suef University, Egypt
*arafa.hussien@science.bsu.edu.eg
by THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES on 09/17/17. For personal use only.

Received 5 May 2017

Revised 7 July 2017
Accepted 24 August 2017
Surf. Rev. Lett. Downloaded from www.worldscientific.com

Published 15 September 2017

In this paper, we demonstrate theoretically an e±cient way to improve the optical properties of the
PIN silicon solar cell. We design an anti-re°ecting coating (ARC) from one-dimensional ternary
photonic crystals (PCs). Also, we design a back-re°ector that composed of one-dimensional binary
PC. By adding ARC layers, we have observed that the absorption is increased from 0.5 to 0.75.
Moreover, by adding back re°ector layers, we found that the absorption values rise to reach over
0.95 in the range of the photonic band gap (PBG) of the back re°ector. Thus, using PCs in each
ARC and back re°ector has a signi¯cant enhancement of the absorption of the cell. Our design could
have a distinct e®ect on the conversion e±ciency of the cell. We use transfer matrix method to
optimize the PBG of the back re°ector. Finally, the numerical and simulated results of the cell are
investigated by COMSOL Multiphysics that based on the ¯nite element method (FEM).

Keywords: Photonic crystals; solar cell; anti-re°ection coating; COMSOL.

1. Introduction semiconductor immersed between two layers of

Energy crisis encourages the consumers to search for
development more stable and possibly less expensive
new sources of energy. Renewable energy is the so-
lution for energy crisis all over the world. Thus, re-
newable energy received considerable attention due
to its novel properties rather than the conventional
source of energy (fossil fuels). The most popular type
of renewable energy among all types is the solar en-
ergy, and many researchers devoted the attention
toward the solar cell. Wherein, solar cell converts
electromagnetic radiation into electrical energy, and
this process occurs particularly in some semiconduc-
tor materials which are called photovoltaic (PV)
e®ect.1 PIN solar cell structure is a layer of intrinsic
p-doped and n-doped semiconductor materials. PIN
is characterized by the built-in electric ¯eld which is
the same as in the p-n junction. However, PIN solar
cell di®ers in the electric ¯eld and depletion region,
which extend over a wide range. However, the gen-
erated electron hole pairs within each P-region and
N-region will be recombined before being collected.
So that, the only generation which causes photo-
current is within the depletion region. Therefore, the
wide range of depletion region is considered as an
advantage in materials which have short minority
carrier di®usion lengths because the light-generated
carriers have less probability of recombination
before being collected.2

*Corresponding author.

1850103-1
 A. H. Aly & H. Sayed

Recently, silicon is widely spread in the PV in- necessitates to solve the Poisson (Eq. (1)) and con-
dustry due to the low cost, high e±ciency and easy to tinuity (Eqs. (2) and (3))12 equations to determine
fabricate. Above all, PIN silicon solar cell provides the electrostatic potential
, electron concentration n
some limitations in e±ciency due to the indirect band (cm
3 ) and hole concentration p (cm
3 ) as functions
gap of silicon beside the transmitted photons from the of space:
active area of the cell without any generation, in r  ð"s r
Þ ¼
; ð1Þ
addition to energy losses by re°ection on the top
surface of the cell. Wherein the polished silicon solar @n 1

r  Jn þ Un ¼ 0; ð2Þ
cell su®ers from signi¯cant losses by re°ection which @t q
reached to 35% at wavelength ¼ 600 nm for normal @p 1

r  Jh þ Uh ¼ 0; ð3Þ
incidence.3 This large portion of re°ected light is due @t q
to the high refractive index of silicon that leads to a
where "s and  are the semiconductor permittivity
high dielectric contrast between the air and silicon.
and the space charge density given by Eq. (4), q is the
by THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES on 09/17/17. For personal use only.

Therefore, many researchers directed the attention

charge of the electron, (Jn ; Jh ) are current densities
toward the usage of the anti-re°ecting coating (ARC)
(A/cm2) and Un ; Uh are the net number of electrons
and back re°ector to reduce the re°ectivity of the cell
and holes recombined in the unit of time and volume
and to reduce the leakage of the transmitted photons
Surf. Rev. Lett. Downloaded from www.worldscientific.com

[1/(S cm 3 Þ]:
from the cell, respectively.4
Recently, photonic crystals (PCs) or photonic  ¼ qðn
p þ NA
ND Þ; ð4Þ
band gap (PBG) could be of potential use as ARC Un ¼ Rn
Gn ; ð5Þ
and back re°ector due to their unique properties. PCs
Uh ¼ R h
G h ; ð6Þ
are inhomogeneous arti¯cial structures with periodic
modulation of dielectric constants in one, two and where Rn ; Gn are the generation and the recombina-
three dimensions.5–7 PCs have a distinct e®ect on the tion rate of electrons. Rh , Gh are generation and
propagation of the incident electromagnetic waves.8 recombination rate of holes. The current densities, Jn
Thus, PCs received considerable attention duo to and Jh , with drift and di®usion components, are given
their unique properties, especially on the improve- by Eqs. (7) and (8). Then the total current density is
ment of solar cell e±ciency. Thus, we use one- given by Eq. (9):
dimensional PCs in each ARC and back re°ector due
Jn ¼
qnn r
þ qDn rn; ð7Þ
to its low cost and variety of applications.9–11
In this paper, we demonstrate the e®ect of 1D Jh ¼
qph r
þ qDh rp; ð8Þ
ternary PCs (i.e. three material layers constituting a J ¼ Jn þ Jh ; ð9Þ
period of lattice) as a planner ARC on the character-
where n ; h are the temperature-dependent electron
istics of the PIN solar cell. Moreover, the e®ect of 1D
and hole mobilities [m2/(VS)] given by Eqs. (10)
binary PCs (i.e. two material layers constituting a pe-
and (11). Dn and Dh are the di®usion coe±cients of
riod of lattice) as a back re°ector to the cell is studied.
electrons and holes with D ¼ kT/q the di®usion
The e®ect on the optical properties such as absorption
coe±cient.13 k is the Boltzmann constant and T is the
through the cell and the optical generation of electron
temperature:
hole pairs is considered here. Our simulation proce-
dures have investigated by transfer matrix method e ¼ 7:7  10 4 ; ð10Þ
(TMM) for the back re°ector and COMSOL Multi-

T
1:8
physics that essentially based on the ¯nite element h ¼ 850 : ð11Þ
300
method (FEM) for the overall PIN silicon solar cell.
In wave optics module to determine photogeneration
rates, G ¼ Gn ¼ Gp, we calculate the optical electric
2. Modeling and Motivation ¯eld by solving Maxwell's equations in the frequency
domain:
PV simulation by COMSOL Multiphysics requires
semiconductor and wave optics modules. Also, it r  ðr  EÞ
k 20 "r E ¼ 0 ð12Þ

1850103-2
 PBG Materials and Monolayer Solar Cell

where ki is the wave number and given by:

!ni cos i
ki ¼ : ð16Þ
c

Di is the dynamical matrix and given by Eqs. (17)

and (18), for the electric component (TE) and the
magnetic component (TM), respectively.
" #
1 1
Dq ¼ ; ð17Þ
nq cos q
nq cos q
" #
cos q cos q
Dq ¼ ; ð18Þ
nq
nq
by THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES on 09/17/17. For personal use only.

where i ¼ A with nA ¼ 1 for air. The transmittance T

is determined by the following relationship:
(a) (b) (c)  
 1 2
  ;
Surf. Rev. Lett. Downloaded from www.worldscientific.com

T ¼ jtj ¼ 
2
ð19Þ
M11 
Fig. 1. (Color online) Monolayer solar cell simulated in
COMSOL (a) without anti-re°ection coating, (b) with anti-
re°ection coating consisting of layer of (Si3N4) embedded where t is the transmission coe±cient.
between two layers of Sio2 and (c) with the same ARC as in
(b) and one-dimensional PCs as aback re°ector.
3. Result and Discussion
"r ¼ ðnr
ikÞ 2 ð13Þ In the following, we present the numerical and sim-
ulation results of our work. The planner ARC was
where k0 is the wave vector and ð"r Þ is the complex
designed from 1D ternary PCs, which composed of a
permittivity that can be described in terms of the real
layer of silicon nitride (Si3N4) immersed between the
part (nr ) and the imaginary part (k).14
two layers of silicon dioxide (SiO2). The optimum
Our structure is composed of p-region, intrinsic
thicknesses are 98, 48 and 8 nm for the ¯rst SiO2
region and n-region of thicknesses 15, 200 and 27 nm,
layer, the Si3N4 layer and the second SiO2 layer, re-
respectively. Those decomposed in silicon wafer are
spectively, structure for one period. These ARCs are
shown in Fig. 1(a). Our model in the presence of ARC
optimized in our previous work.16 Our results are
is shown in Fig. 1(b). Moreover, our model with ARC
presented in two stages. The ¯rst one is optimized by
and back re°ector is shown in Fig. 1(c).
our back re°ector by TMM. The distinct e®ect of the
In this work, we use the TMM to analyze one-
ARC and back re°ector on the optical properties of
dimensional binary PCs as a back re°ector to the PIN
the PIN solar cell is discussed, to investigate the
silicon solar cell. The transmittance spectrum can be
enhancements on the optical generation of the cell
calculated by TMM.15 According to TMM, the total
through the second stage.
transfer matrix given by Eq. (12).
!
M11 M12
¼ D
1
1
1 N
A ðD1 P1 D 1 D2 P2 D 2 Þ DA ;
3.1. The back re°ector
M21 M22
For normal incidence of light, the output transmis-
ð14Þ sion spectra for our back re°ector which composed of
1D binary PBG structure are investigated via a dif-
where Pi is the propagation matrix in layer i since
ferent number of periods, as shown in Fig. 2. The
i ¼ 1, 2 and A, which is given by:
values of various parameters for this 1D binary PBG
" # structure were chosen as the Sio2 layer is character-
expðjki di Þ 0
Pi ¼ ; ð15Þ ized by the refractive index of 1.4617 and thickness
0 expð
jki di Þ d1 ¼ 40 nm. The c
Sio2 :H layer is speci¯ed with

1850103-3
 A. H. Aly & H. Sayed

1 wavelength longer than 730 nm, due to its energy gap

0.9 N=3 being 1.7 eV19 which corresponding to 730 nm. So
N=5
0.8
N=10
that, any photon with the wavelength longer than
0.7 730 nm will be transmitted from the cell without
0.6 any generation. Thus, we use the number of periods,
Transmission

0.5
N ¼ 10 to act as a back re°ector to the PIN silicon
0.4
solar cell with ARC.
0.3

0.2
3.2. The optical properties
0.1
We will simulate the absorption of the PIN silicon
0
300 350 400 450 500 550 600 650 700 750 800 solar cell by FEM as described in Eq. (20)20:
Wavelength [nm]

jEactive area ðÞj 2

AðÞ ¼ : ð20Þ
by THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES on 09/17/17. For personal use only.

Fig. 2. (Color online) The transmission spectrum of 1D

binary PCs of Sio2 and c-SiOx:H, the thicknesses of the
materials are denoted by 40 and 85 nm, respectively, with
di®erent numbers of periods as shown.
Surf. Rev. Lett. Downloaded from www.worldscientific.com
jEtotal ðÞj 2
Equation (20) relates the electric ¯eld which is
absorbed in the active area of the cell (Eactive area ðÞÞ

as a function of wavelength with the total incident

the refractive index of 2.818 and thickness d2 ¼ 85 nm.
The transmission spectrum is calculated by TMM as
discussed previously. We optimized the back re°ector
with the last parameters to localize the PBG in the
range of 550–700 nm, because the transmitted pho-
tons from the PIN silicon solar cell with ARC
as shown in Fig. 3 are beginning approximately at
 550 nm. So that, we are concerned about the
range of wavelengths from 550 nm to 730 nm, because
the active area of the cell which composed of amor-
phous silicon does not absorb any photons with the
0.8
0.7
electric ¯eld (Etotal ðÞÞ.
Therefore, in Fig. 4, we investigate the e®ect of the
ARC and the back re°ector on the values of the
absorbed light through the cell. Without ARC, the
absorption value is not exceeding 0.5. In the presence
of the ARC, we obtained a signi¯cant enhancement in
the absorption values, which increased to reach over
0.75. The de¯nite increase in the absorption values is
due to the decrements on re°ection at the interface
that allows to a signi¯cant portion of the incident
light to reach the active area of the cell, which, in
turn, increases the absorption of the considered
structure. Moreover, by adding the back re°ector
layer, we observed that the absorption values increase

0.6

1.0
0.5
Transmission

0.9
0.4
0.8
0.3 0.7

0.2 0.6
Absorption

0.5
0.1
0.4
0.0
300 400 500 600 700 800 0.3
base cell
Wavelenght [nm] 0.2 with ARC
with ARC & back reflector
0.1
Fig. 3. (Color online) The transmission spectrum of the
0.0
PIN silicon solar cell with ARC. These ARCs consist of 1D 300 400 500 600 700 800
ternary PCs that composed of a layer of silicon nitride Wavelenght [nm]
(Si3N4) immersed between the two layers of silicon dioxide
(SiO2). The optimum thicknesses are 98, 48 and 8 nm for Fig. 4. (Color online) Absorption curve for the hydroge-
the ¯rst SiO2 layer, the Si3N4 layer and the second SiO2 nated amorphous silicon (a-Si: H) solar cell in the range
layer, respectively. (300–800 nm), for the three cases as shown.

1850103-4

×1025
5 8
4
Generation rate [1/(m3s)]
PIN Air region
3
2 400 [nm]
1
0 0
0 200
by THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES on 09/17/17. For personal use only.
Arc lenght [nm]
Fig. 5. (Color online) Generation rate versus arc length of
the PIN silicon solar cell at di®erent wavelength values.
Surf. Rev. Lett. Downloaded from www.worldscientific.com
to reach over 0.95 in the range of the PBG of the
back re°ector. Thus, using PCs in each ARC and
back re°ector has a signi¯cant enhancement on the
absorption of the cell.
Then, we calculate the generation term due to the
incident electromagnetic waves on the cell without
any modi¯cation, as shown in Fig. 5. The generation
rate is equal to zero in the air region and decreases
exponentially inside the active area of the cell, due to
the absorption of the incident electromagnetic wave
as shown in Fig. 5. Moreover, the generation rate
depends on the wavelength of the incident light cor-
responding to the energy gap of the cell. Also, we
observed high generation rate at the wavelength of
500 nm. Thus, we demonstrate in Fig. 6 the relation
between the optical generation rate and incident
wavelength in the three cases, without any modi¯-
cation, with ARC only and the cell with ARC and
back re°ector. Here, the optical generation rate
(Goptical ) of electrons is calculated as a function of
wavelength using Eq. (21). The optical generation
rate is directly proportional to the intensity of the
electric ¯eld in the active layer, and the imaginary
part of the permittivity (" 00 ) as in Ref. 21:
" 00 jEj 2
Gopt ðÞ ¼
2}
Figure 6 indicates the presence of the ARC which has
a signi¯cant e®ect on the generation rate due to the
decrements of the re°ection part in the incident light.
Also, the presence of each ARC and back re°ector has
PBG Materials and Monolayer Solar Cell
×1025
Optical generation [m4 kg2/(S6 A2)]
6
5
4
3
500 [nm]
600 [nm] 2
700 [nm] base cell
800 [nm] with ARC
1
with ARC & back reflecor
400 600 300 400 500 600 700 800
Wavelenght [nm]
Fig. 6. (Color online) Relation between optical generation
rate and the incident wavelength for the following cases.
Black color for PIN silicon solar cell without any modi¯-
cation. Red is the cell with ARC only and green for the cell
with ARC and back re°ector.
a signi¯cant enhancement on the generation rate in
the active area due to the decrements of energy losses
by re°ection and transmission of the incident elec-
tromagnetic waves. By the way, the absorbed electric
¯eld increased in the active area of the cell, which
causes high generation rate. This e®ect could obtain a
good indication of high current density and also high
cell e±ciency.
4. Conclusion
PCs are a suitable candidate to overcome the limi-
tation of PIN silicon solar cell e±ciency. Thus, we
investigate the optical properties of the PIN solar cell
in the presence of a planner ARC and back re°ector.
The ARC is designed from one-dimensional ternary
PCs that contains only one period. Also, the back
re°ector is composed of 1D binary PCs for 10 periods.
By adding ARC, we have observed that the absorp-
tion is increased from 0.5 to 0.75. Moreover, by add-
ing the back re°ector layer, we found that the
absorption values increase to reach over 0.95 in the
range of the PBG of the back re°ector. Thus, using
: ð21Þ
PCs in each ARC and back re°ector has a signi¯cant
enhancement of the absorption of the cell. Our design
could have a distinct e®ect on the conversion e±-
ciency of the cell. Finally, the numerical results are
obtained by COMSOL Multiphysics that based on
1850103-5
 A. H. Aly & H. Sayed
the FEM use TMM and MATLAB program to opti-
mize the PBG of the back re°ector.
References
1. J. Johansson, Modelling and optimization of CIGS
solar cell modules, Master's thesis, Avdelningen f€ or
energi och byggnadsdesign Institutionen f€or arkitektur
och byggd milj€o Lunds tekniska h€ogskola Lunds uni-
versitet (2008).
2. S. Abdellatif and K. Kirah, Energy Proced. 36 (2013)
488.
3. A. N. Sprafke and R. B. Wehrspohn, Green 2 (2012)
177.
4. K. Han and C. Chang, Nanomater 4 (2014) 87.
by THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES on 09/17/17. For personal use only.
5. J. D. Joannopoulos, S. G. Johnson, J. N. Winn and
R. D. Meade, Photonic Crystals: Molding the Flow of
Light (Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ,
1995).
Surf. Rev. Lett. Downloaded from www.worldscientific.com
6. A. H. Aly, W. Sabra and H. A. Elsayed, Int. J. Mod.
Phys. B 31 (2017) 1750123.
7. A. H. Aly, H. A. Elsayed and S. A. El-Naggar, J. Mod.
Opt. 64 (2017) 74.
8. S. John, Phys. Rev. Lett. 58 (1987) 2486.
9. A. H. Aly and H. A. ElSayed, J. Mod. Opt. 64 (2017)
871.
1850103-6
View publication stats
10. E. Yablonovitch, Phys. Rev. Lett. 58 (1987) 2059.
11. A. H. Aly and M. F. Eissa, Surf. Rev. Lett. 24 (2017)
1750106.
12. R. J. Elliot and A. F. Gibson, An Introduction to Solid
State Physics and its Application (William Clowes &
Sons Ltd, London, 1974).
13. M. J. Tajik, Analytical and numerical modeling of
organic photovoltaic devices, MSc thesis, McMaster
University Hamilton, Ontario, Canada (2010).
14. C. Kittel, Introduction to Solid State Physics (Wiley,
1986).
15. R. C. Thompson, J. Mod. Opt. 37 (1990) 147.
16. A. H. Aly and H. Sayed, Opt. Appl.
17. A. Banerjee, Prog. Electromagn. Res. Lett. 11 (2009)
129.
18. A. Ho®mann, U. W. Paetzold, C. Zhang, T.
Merdzhanova, A. Lambertz, C. Ulbrich, K. Bittkau
and U. Rau, Opt. Expr. 22 (2014) A1270.
19. C. Feser, J. Lacombe, K. V. Maydell and C. Agert,
Prog. Photovolt. Res. Appl. 20 (2012).
20. O. A. M. Abdelraouf and N. K. Allam, Opt. Mater.
54 (2016) 84.
21. M. G. Deceglie, V. E. Ferry, A. P. Alivisatos and
H. A. Atwater, Nano Lett. 12 (2012) 2894.