Chen Nuofu

Thermal analysis and test for single concentrator solar cells

A thermal model for concentrator solar cells based on energy conservation principles was designed. Under 400X concentration with no cooling aid, the cell temperature would get up to about 1200℃.Metal plates were used as heat sinks for cooling the system, which remarkably reduce the cell temperature. For a fixed concentration ratio, the cell temperature reduced as the heat sink area increased. In order to keep the cell at a constant temperature, the heat sink area needs to increase linearly as a function of the concentration ratio. GaInP/GaAs/Ge triple-junction solar cells were fabricated to verify the model. A cell temperature of 37℃ was measured when using a heat sink at 400X concentratration.

Ag surface plasmon enhanced double-layer antireflection coatings for GaAs solar cells

Surface plasmon enhanced antireflection coatings for GaAs solar cells have been designed theoretically. The reflectance of double-layer antireflection coatings (ARCs) with different suspensions of Ag particles is calculated as a function of the wavelength according to the optical interference matrix and the Mie theory. The mean dielectric concept was adopted in the simulations. A significant reduction of reflectance in the spectral region from 300 to 400 nm was found to be beneficial for the design of ARCs. A new SiO2/Ag–ZnS double-layer coating with better antireflection ability can be achieved if the particle volume fraction in ZnS is 1%–2%.

Ag nanoparticles preparation and their light trapping performance

Ag nanoparticles were fabricated on Si substrates by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering and thermal annealing treatments. It was found that Ag nanoparticles are ellipsoid at low annealing temperature, but the axis ratio decreases with the increase of annealing temperature, and a shape transformation from ellipsoid to sphere occurs when the temperature increases to a critical point. The experimental results showed that the surface plasmon resonances depend greatly on the nanoparticles’shape and size, which is in accordance with the theoretical calculation based on discrete dipole approximation. The results of forward-scattering efficiency (FSE) and light trapping spectrum (LTS) showed that Ag nanoparticles annealed at 400°C could strongly enhance the light harvest than those annealed at 300 and 500°C, and that the LTS peak intensity of the former is 1.7 and 1.5 times stronger than those of the later two samples, respectively. The conclusions obtained in this paper showed that Ag ellipsoid nanoparticles with appropriate size is more favorable for enhancing the light trapping.

The pl “violet shift” of cerium dioxide on silicon

CeO2 thin film was fabricated by dual ion beam epitaxial technique. The phenomenon of PL violet shift at room temperature was observed, and the distance of shift was about 65 nm. After the analysis of crystal structure and valence in the compound were carried out by XRD and XPS technique, it was concluded that the PL shift was related with valence of cerium ion in the oxides. When the valence of cerium ion varied from tetravalence to trivalence, the PL peak position would move from blue region to violet region and the phenomenon of “violet shift” was observed.

Quasi-hexagonal ordered arrays of FePt nanoparticles prepared by a micellar method

Hexagonally ordered arrays of magnetic FePt nanoparticles on Si substrates are prepared by a self assembly of diblock copolymer PS-b-P2VP in toluene, a dip coating process and finally plasma treatment. The as-treated FePt nanoparticles are covered by an oxide layer that can be removed by a 40 s Ar+ sputtering. The effects of the sequence of adding salts on the composition distribution are revealed by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements. No particle agglomeration is observed after 600 degrees C annealing for the present ordered array of FePt nanoparticles, which exhibits advantages in patterning FePt nanoparticles by a micellar method. Moreover, magnetic properties of the annealed FePt nanoparticles at room temperature are investigated by a vibrating sample magnetometer.

Dipolar and Quadrupolar Modes of SiO2/Au Nanoshell Enhanced Light Trapping in Thin Film Solar Cells

Dipolar and quadrupolar resonance wavelengths of SiO2/Au nanoshell surface plasmons are designed at 560 nm to enhance the light trapping in thin film solar cells. In order to quantitatively describe the light trapping effect, the forward-scattering efficiency (FSE) and the light trapping efficiency (LTE) are proposed by considering the light scattering direction of SiO2/Au nanoshells. Based on the Mie theory, the FSE and the LTE are calculated for SiO2/Au nanoshells of different dimensions, and the contributions of the dipolar and quadrupolar modes to the light trapping effect are analyzed in detail. When the surface coverage of nanoshells is 5%, the LTEs are 21.7% and 46.9% for SiO2/Au nanoshells with sizes of (31 nm, 69 nm) and (53 nm, 141 nm), respectively. The results indicate that the SiO2/Au nanoshell whose quadrupolar mode peak is designed to the strongest solar energy flux density of the solar spectrum facilitates the further enhancement of light harvesting in thin film solar cells.

Design and optimization of a monolithic GalnP/GalnAs tandem solar cell

We have theoretically calculated the photovoltaic conversion efficiency of a monolithic dual-junction GaInP/GaInAs device, which can be experimentally fabricated on a binary GaAs substrate. By optimizing the bandgap combination of the considered structure, an improvement of conversion efficiency has been observed in comparison to the conventional GaInP2/GaAs system. For the suggested bandgap combination 1.83 eV/1.335 eV, our calculation indicates that the attainable efficiency can be enhanced up to 40.45% (300 suns, AM1.5d) for the optimal structure parameter (1550 nm GaInP top and 5500 nm GaInAs bottom), showing promising application prospects due to its acceptable lattice-mismatch (0.43%) to the GaAs substrate.

Growth-Parameter Spaces and Optical Properties of Cubic Boron Nitride Films on Si(001)

Cubic boron nitride (c-BN) films were deposited on Si(001) substrates in an ion beam assisted deposition (IBAD) system under various conditions, and the growth parameter spaces and optical properties of c-BN films have been investigated systematically. The results indicate that suitable ion bombardment is necessary for the growth of c-BN films, and a well defined parameter space can be established by using the P/a-parameter. The refractive index of BN films keeps a constant of 1.8 for the c-BN content lower than 50%, while for c-BN films with higher cubic phase the refractive index increases with the c-BN content from 1.8 at chi(c) = 50% to 2.1 at chi(c) = 90%. Furthermore, the relationship between n and rho for BN films can be described by the Anderson-Schreiber equation, and the overlap field parameter gamma is determined to be 2.05.

Chemical etching of a GaSb crystal incorporated with Mn grown by the Bridgman method under microgravity conditions

A GaSb crystal incorporated with Mn has been grown by the Bridgman method on the Polizon facility onboard the FOTON-M3 spacecraft. Structural defects and growth striations have been successfully revealed by the chemical etching method. By calculating various parameters of the convection, the striation patterns can be explained, and the critical value of the Taylor number, which characterizes the convective condition of the rotating magnetic field induced azimuthal flow, was shown. The stresses generated during crystal growth can be reflected by the observations of etch pit distribution and other structural defects. Suggestions for improving the space experiment to improve the quality of the crystal are given.