Nanostructured down-converter module for photovoltaic application

Thierry Deschamps (1) , Antoine Guille , Emmanuel Drouard (1) , Radoslaw Mazurczyk (2) , Régis Orobtchouk (1) , Cécile Jamois (1) , Alain Fave (3) , Romain Peretti (1) , Erwann Fourmond (3) , Antonio Pereira (4) , Bernard Moine (4) , Christian Seassal (1)

1 INL - Photonique - INL - Nanophotonique
2 INL - Nanolyon - INL - Plateforme Technologique Nanolyon
3 INL - PV - INL - Photovoltaïque
4 ILM - Institut Lumière Matière [Villeurbanne]

In silicon-based solar cells, a substantial part of the energy losses is related to the charge carriers thermalization in the UV-blue range and the week carriers collection at these wavelenghts. To avoid this issue, we introduce a new concept which combines a rare-earths doped thin layer with a photonic crystal (PC) layer, allowing an efficient conversion from UV-blue photons to near-IR photons. We report on the feasibility of such a nanostructured down-converter module using an active rare-earth doped CaYAlO4 thin layer and a silicon nitride PC on top. By means of optical numerical simulations, the promising potentialities of the concept are demonstrated.

Keywords: photonic crystals; nanophotonics; down-conversion; optical simulations; doped thin layer; photovoltaics; quantum-cutting; Spectral converter

Domains: Optics [physics.optics]

Thierry Deschamps, Antoine Guille, Emmanuel Drouard, Radoslaw Mazurczyk, Régis Orobtchouk, et al.. Nanostructured down-converter module for photovoltaic application. SPIE OPTO, Green Photonics, Feb 2013, San Francisco, United States. pp.86200G-86200G-8, ⟨10.1117/12.2003640⟩. ⟨hal-00809390⟩