Dispersion, Wave Propagation and Efficiency Analysis of Nanowire Solar Cells

We analyze the electromagnetic properties of InP/InAs nanowire solar cells for different geometries. We address both eigenvalue calculations to determine the wave propagation as well as source problems to simulate direct perpendicular illumination by three-dimensional finite element calculations. We demonstrate the validity of a 2D waveguide modal analysis as a method of estimating the results of the computationally far more demanding 3D analysis. The resulting data is employed in a detailed balance analysis in order to determine the optimum set of bandgap energies for a single-junction and dual-junction cell as well as the corresponding efficiency limit. The efficiency of the nanowire design can approach the efficiency of conventional thin-film designs despite the low volume fill-factor. (c) 2009 Optical Society of America