We examine light-trapping in thin crystalline silicon periodic nanostructures for solar cell applications. Using group theory, we show that light-trapping can be improved over a broad band when structural mirror symmetry is broken. This finding allows us to obtain surface nanostructures with an absorptance exceeding the Lambertian limit over a broad band at normal incidence. Further, we demonst...

The coefficients of linear regression lines fit to 1D model values of broadband surface absorptance T and top-ofatmosphere albedo " indicate the impact of clouds on atmospheric absorptance a. It is argued here that these coefficients cannot be compared directly to corresponding values for hourly observed data. This is because 1 " T = a for 1D models, but not for hourly observations. A 3D Monte ...

Durability and reliability of solid particles to be used in concentrating solar power tower plants is crucial for the project viability. Solid materials implemented are thermal aged cycled this study evaluation at high temperatures. A homemade device has been developed perform accelerated-durability tests, that allows emulation cycling stress from days years, even evaluate 11,000 cycles expecte...

Spectrally-selective solar absorbers harvest solar energy in the form of heat. Solar absorbers using cermet-based coatings demonstrate a high absorptance of the solar spectrum and a low emittance in the infrared (IR) regime. Extensive work has been done to optimize cermet-based solar absorbers to achieve high performance by exploring different cermet (ceramic-metal composite) materials and film...

We use metal-assisted chemical etching (MCE) method to fabricate nanostructured black silicon on the surface of C-Si. The Si-PIN photoelectronic detector based on this type of black silicon shows excellent device performance with a responsivity of 0.57 A/W at 1060 nm. Silicon nanocone arrays can be created using MCE treatment. These modified surfaces show higher light absorptance in the near-in...

In this paper we investigate the potential of light trapping with diffraction gratings for organic solar cells. The architecture of the solar cell is based on conjugated polymers and a buckminsterfullerene derivative (PCBM), forming an interpenetrating donor-acceptor-network. The motivation for light trapping is the small absorptance of the photoactive polymer in the range of the solar spectrum...

Configurations capable of maximizing both the absorption component of system detection efficiency and the achievable polarization contrast were determined for 1550 nm polarized light illumination of different plasmonic structure integrated superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) consisting of p = 264 nm and P = 792 nm periodic niobium nitride (NbN) patterns on silica substrate...

A new spectrally selective coating based on carbon nanotubes (CNTs) for solar thermal applications is demonstrated. For optimized coatings solar absorptance coefficients α40.92 and thermal emittance coefficients εo0.1 (400 °C) were achieved. These results render CNT coatings as a low cost and high performance alternative to commercially available vacuum deposited cermet coatings for concentrate...