Simulation of Amorphous Silicon Carbide Photonic Crystal Absorption Layer for Solar Cells

Abstract

In this work, the amorphous silicon carbide (a-SiC) with low cost and high extinction coefficient was used as the light absorption layer of solar cells, and the photonic crystal (PC) structure and defect structure were introduced. By optimizing the scatterer shape, structural parameters and defect types of photonic crystal, the absorption efficiency of the light absorption layer was further improved. The results show that the photonic crystal absorption layer with vacancy line defect is better than the perfect photonic crystal absorption layer. Meanwhile, the absorption efficiency of the photonic crystal absorption layer significantly improves in the case that the scatterer is an elliptical cylindrical air hole scatterer. When the incident light is in the wavelength range of 0.30~0.80 μm and the absorption layer height is 0.60 μm, the absorption efficiency of the absorption layer can reach 95.60%. Compared with the absorption layer without photonic crystal structure, the absorption layer is increased by 43.24%. At the same time, the absorption layer has little dependence on the incidence angle of sunlight. When the incidence angle is 65°, the absorption efficiency is still higher than 80%.