Photonic crystal based structures for ultra-thin film solar cells

The optical absorption of an ultra-thin active layer solar cell can be significantly increased by engineering properly both the in plane patterning of the active layer and the vertical stack. This structuration both controls incident light coupling into slow light modes of the photonic crystals and photon lifetime in the absorbing material. Numerical results on optical and electrical properties will be presented, as well as preliminary optical and electrical characterizations of silicon based demonstrators.