Compound biomimetic structures for efficiency enhancement of Ga0.5In0.5P/GaAs/Ge triple-junction solar cells

Biomimetic nanostructures have shown to enhance the optical absorption of Ga0.5In0.5P/GaAs/Ge triple junction solar cells due to excellent antireflective (AR) properties that, however, are highly dependent on their geometric dimensions. In practice, it is challenging to control fabrication conditions which produce nanostructures in ideal periodic arrangements and with tapered side-wall profiles, leading to sacrificed AR properties and solar cell performance. In this work, we introduce compound biomimetic nanostructures created by depositing a layer of silicon dioxide (SiO2) on top of titanium dioxide(TiO2) nanostructures for triple junction solar cells. The device exhibits photogenerated current and power conversion efficiency that are enhanced by similar to 8.9% and similar to 6.4%, respectively, after deposition due to their improved antireflection characteristics. We further investigate and verify the optical properties of compound structures via a rigorous coupled wave analysis model. The additional SiO2 layer not only improves the geometric profile, but also serves as a double-layer dielectric coating. It is concluded that the compound biomimetic nanostructures exhibit superior AR properties that are relatively insensitive to fabrication constraints. Therefore, the compound approach can be widely adopted for versatile optoelectronic devices and applications. (C)2014 Optical Society of America