We were awarded NSF grant for advanced plasmonic photovoltaics! [Jun 28, 2012]
We were awarded by National Science Foundation about $300K research grant for three years to increase the solar energy conversion efficiency in hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) photovoltaic devices with plasmonic perfect absorbers (see Figure below). The project team includes Prof. Guney (PI) and co-PIs Prof. Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE), Prof. Paul Bergstrom (ECE), and Prof. Costas Soukoulis (Ames Lab, IA). Solar photovoltaic (PV) energy conversion is a technically viable and sustainable solution to society's energy needs [1], but the costs must be further reduced for widespread adoption at the terrawatt scale needed to combat carbon-induced climate destabilization [2]. a-Si:H is an inexpensive and readily available earth abundant solar cell material, which stands to revolutionize our capability for generating clean sustainable energy. PV cells made with a-Si:H have the fastest energy payback time of any commercial PV device [3] and are therefore the most useful for combating climate change. Unfortunately, the light induced degradation of the electronic properties of a-Si:H limits their overall efficiency. However, recent advances in controlling fundamental optical processes using metamaterials (i.e., on-demand optical materials from scratch) [4-20] provide new opportunities to improve the optical enhancement in a-Si:H PV devices. This approach has the potential to both improve the overall efficiency directly by improving optical absorption in the cell, but also to further reduce the negative effects of light-induced degradation.
An illustration of hydrogenated amorphous silicon solar cell integrated with plasmonic metamaterial surface structure for enhanced solar conversion efficiency.
This project envisions that the metamaterial paradigm can allow for managing solar light to the extent which otherwise not possible with traditional materials. For example, solar light impinging on a metal surface produces waves along the surface when it interacts with the collective oscillations of free electrons in the metal. These surface waves referred to as surface plasmon polaritons, can be exploited to make plasmonic metamaterial “perfect absorbers” (plasmonic perfect meta-absorbers) to enhance the efficiency of solar PV devices. Perfect meta-absorbers can be designed with broadband, polarization-independent, and wide-angle optical absorption features [21-30]. These critical features, lacking in most optical enhancement schemes for solar cell designs, are ideally required to maximize the efficiency of solar cells. Wide-angle reception, for example, is particularly important to increase solar energy conversion efficiency for curved surfaces, and for maximized temporal and spatial response of the panels to solar light.
References
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