Substantial influence on solar energy harnessing ability by geometries of ordered Si nanowire array

Zilong Wu; Ziyi Wang; Songyou Wang; Zhenyang Zhong

doi:10.1186/1556-276X-9-495

Substantial influence on solar energy harnessing ability by geometries of ordered Si nanowire array

Nanoscale Res Lett. 2014 Sep 15;9(1):495. doi: 10.1186/1556-276X-9-495. eCollection 2014.

Authors

Zilong Wu¹, Ziyi Wang², Songyou Wang², Zhenyang Zhong¹

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Surface Physics and Key Laboratory of Micro- and Nano-Photonic Structures (Ministry of Education) and Department of Physics, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China.
² Key Laboratory of Micro and Nano Photonic Structures, Ministry of Education, Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Ultra-Precision Optical Manufacturing, Department of Optical Science and Engineering, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China.

Abstract

The reflectance of the controlled periodic Si nanowire (NW) arrays is systematically explored, which characterizes the influence on the solar energy harnessing ability by the geometries of the NW. A unique dependence of the reflectance of the Si NW array on the diameter, the height, and the bending of the NW are disclosed. The solar energy loss caused by the reflection of the Si NW array exhibits the minimum for the NW with intermediate diameter and length. A plane-wave-based transfer-matrix method (TMM) simulation is performed, which is well consistent with the experimental results. Our results demonstrate the design principle to optimize the Si NW arrays for high-efficiency solar cells.

Pacs: 81.07.-b; 78.67.-n; 81.16.-c.

Keywords: Reflectance; Si nanowire array; Solar energy; TMM.