Light management for photovoltaics using surface nanostructures
Roberta DE ANGELIS (Università degli Studi di Roma "Tor Vergata")
Abstract
Dye sensitized solar cells (DSCs) represent a valuable low cost alternative to traditional Si devices. Light management strategies aimed to enhance the light harvesting are very promising in order to realize highly efficient DSCs. Bragg grating nanostructuring of the DSC active layer produces an increase in the absorption compared to a standard DSC. A Bragg grating has been realized directly on the titania layer by a Soft Lithographic process. Morphological analysis demonstrated a successful pattern transfer over a large area. Spectroscopic and photovoltaic measurements have been performed on nanostructured and traditional bare DSCs. In the spectral range 500–750 nm the patterned cell showed a lower transmission and reflection indicating that the grating acts efficiently as a light harvesting element. I–V and Incident Photon to Current Efficiency (IPCE) characterization showed an enhancement of 31% of the cell efficiency, confirming the effectiveness of this method.
