Spanning transparent microelectrodes by direct ink writing; epitaxial growth of GaAs through a 3D photonic crystal

LMI EFRC Team Meeting

The LMI-EFRC is devoted to new designs and materials for photovoltaics that utilize the entire solar spectrum

Thin film, flexible GaAs solar cell

Light-driven synthesis and pattern formation

The LMI team is working together to investigate new photonic nanostructures and light absorbers for solar energy conversion

Flexible downshifting luminescent concentrators with arrays of silicon microsolar cells

Research Groups

Research Group 2: Optics for Spontaneous Emission and Absorption Enhancement

RG Leader: Eli Yablonovitch
Affiliated PIs: Paul Alivisatos, Harry Atwater, Paul Braun, Ralph Nuzzo, John Rogers

Large-area nanostructured plasmonic solar cells in amorphous silicon (H. Atwater, Caltech & P. Alivisatos, LBNL

Most solar cells suffer substantial efficiency losses due to incomplete light trapping. While the principles of light trapping in the ray optical regime are well-established, wave optical light trapping principles are largely undeveloped and are the focus of current intensive worldwide effort. Initial work from RG-2 has identified new optical designs for light trapping beyond the ray optical light trapping limit, using both scattering structures and also by exploiting internal photon recycling via spontaneous emission.

RG-2 research projects include:

High Voc via efficient luminescence extraction
Light trapping designs for quantum dot photovoltaics
Light trapping in the ultra-thin, wave-optic limit
Optimal light trapping texture via inverse design
Plasmonic rainbow trapping structures for light localization and spectrum splitting