Enhanced light absorption of kinked nanowire arrays for high-performance solar cells

A kinked InP nanowire array solar cell architecture is proposed for high-performance solar cells. Coupled three-dimensional optoelectronic simulations are performed to investigate the optical absorption and photovoltaic conversion properties. The results show that the kinked morphology significantly enhances the absorption by increasing the optical path, exciting more resonance modes, and reducing the transmission into the substrate. Moreover, the kinked morphology also increases the absorption in the intrinsic region by suppressing the absorption loss in the top doped region. For short nanowires with a total length of 1-1.5 mu m, the kinked structures exhibit remarkable efficiency exceeding 14%, significantly higher than the vertical nanowires. Nanowires with different kinked angles are studied, and a moderate kinked angle is beneficial for obtaining optimal performance. This work demonstrates the potential of kinked nanowires in ultra-thin low-cost high-efficiency solar cells.