Mietronics: From Fundamentals to Photon Management for Solar Cells

Mark L. Brongersma (Stanford University)

ABSTRACT: 

Semiconductor nanostructures are at the heart of electronic devices and solar cells. When properly sized and shaped, they can also support optical, Mie-type resonances that are capable of boosting light-matter interaction over bulk materials1–4. By combining their desirable electronic and optical properties, it is possible to create conceptually new light trapping layers for solar energy harvesting5–11. In this tutorial presentation, I will start with a discussion of the basic optical properties of Mie resonators and compare their behavior to the more established plasmonic resonators. I will then show how such resonators can be assembled into dense two-dimensional arrays, which are currently termed metasurfaces. Metasurfaces can offer a wide range of optical functions and display tremendous design flexibility. I will highlight the key physics that is relevant to the design of light trapping layers for solar cells.

References

  1. Kuznetsov, A. I., Miroshnichenko, A. E., Brongersma, M. L., Kivshar, Y. S. & Lukyanchuk, B. Optically resonant dielectric nanostructures. Science 354, 2472–2472 (2016).
  2. Cao, L. et al. Engineering light absorption in semiconductor nanowire devices. Nat. Mater. 8, 643–647 (2009).
  3. Cao, L. Y., Fan, P. Y., Barnard, E. S., Brown, A. M. & Brongersma, M. L. Tuning the Color of Silicon Nanostructures. Nano Lett. 10, 2649–2654 (2010).
  4. Kim, S. J. et al. Superabsorbing, artificial metal films constructed from semiconductor nanoantennas. Nano Lett. 16, 3801–3808 (2016).
  5. Cao, L. et al. Semiconductor nanowire optical antenna solar absorbers. Nano Lett. 10, 439–445 (2010).
  6. Spinelli, P., Verschuuren, M. & Polman, A. Broadband omnidirectional antireflection coating based on subwavelength surface Mie resonators. Nat. Commun. 3, 692 (2012).
  7. Spinelli, P., Macco, B., Verschuuren, M. A., Kessels, W. M. M. & Polman, A. Al2O3/TiO2 nano-pattern antireflection coating with ultralow surface recombination. Appl. Phys. Lett. 102, 233902 (2013).
  8. Pecora, E. F., Cordaro, A., Kik, P. G. & Brongersma, M. L. Broadband Antireflection Coatings Employing Multiresonant Dielectric Metasurfaces. ACS Photonics 5, 4456–4462 (2018).
  9. Cordaro, A. et al. Antireflection High-Index Metasurfaces Combining Mie and Fabry-Pérot Resonances. ACS Photonics 6, 453–459 (2019).
  10. Kim, S. J. et al. Light trapping for solar fuel generation with Mie resonances. Nano Lett. 14, 1446–52 (2014).
  11. Neder, V., Luxembourg, S. L. & Polman, A. Efficient colored silicon solar modules using integrated resonant dielectric nanoscatterers. Appl. Phys. Lett. 111, 073902 (2017).

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http://frontiers.icfo.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Kuznetsov-et-al.-2016-Optically-resonant-dielectric-nanostructures.pdf

BIO:

Mark Brongersma is the Stephen Harris Professor in the Departments of Materials Science and Applied Physics at Stanford University. He leads a research team of ten students and four postdocs. Their research is directed towards the development and physical analysis of new materials and structures that find use in nanoscale electronic and photonic devices. He is on the list of Global Highly Cited Researchers (Clarivate Analytics). He received a National Science Foundation Career Award, the Walter J. Gores Award for Excellence in Teaching, the International Raymond and Beverly Sackler Prize in the Physical Sciences (Physics) for his work on plasmonics, and is a Fellow of the OSA, the SPIE, and the APS. Dr. Brongersma received his PhD from the FOM Institute AMOLF in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, in 1998. From 1998-2001 he was a postdoctoral research fellow at the California Institute of Technology.