LIMIT OF NANOPHOTONIC LIGHT-TRAPPING IN SOLAR CELLS
Zongfu Yu, Aaswath Raman, and Shanhui Fan
Ginzton Lab, Stanford University, CA, U.S.A.
ABSTRACT
Establishing the fundamental limit of nanophotonic light-
trapping schemes is of paramount importance and is
becoming increasingly urgent for current solar cell
research. The standard theory of light trapping
demonstrated that absorption enhancement in a medium
2 2
cannot exceed a factor of 4 n / sin θ , where n is the
refractive index of the active layer, and θ is the angle of
the emission cone in the medium surrounding the cell.
This theory, however, is not applicable in the
nanophotonic regime. Here we develop a statistical
temporal coupled-mode theory of light trapping based on a
rigorous electromagnetic approach. Our theory reveals
that the standard limit can be substantially surpassed
when optical modes in the active layer are confined to
deep-subwavelength scale, opening new avenues for
highly efficient next-generation solar cells.
INTRODUCTION
The ultimate success of photovoltaic (PV) cell technology
requires great advancements in both cost reduction and
efficiency improvement. An approach that simultaneously
achieves these two objectives is to use light-trapping
schemes. Light trapping allows cells to absorb sunlight
using an active material layer much thinner than the
material’s intrinsic absorption length. This then reduces
the amount of materials used in PV cells, which cuts cell
cost in general, and moreover facilitates mass production
of PV cells that are based on less abundant materials. In
addition, light trapping can improve cell efficiency, since
thinner cells provide better collection of photo-generated
charge carriers.
The theory of light trapping [1, 2] was initially developed
for conventional cells where the light-absorbing film is
typically many wavelengths thick. By roughening the
semiconductor-air interface, one randomizes the light
propagation directions inside the material and thus
increases the optical paths. For such light-trapping
scheme, the standard theory, first developed by
Yablonovitch, shows that the absorption enhancement
2
factor has an upper limit 4n limit.
For nanophotonic films with thicknesses comparable or
even smaller than wavelength scale, some of the basic
assumptions in the conventional theory are no longer
applicable. As a result, whether the Yablonovitch limit still
holds in the nanophotonic regime remains an open
question that is of fundamental importance.
In this report, we develop a statistical coupled-mode
theory that describes light trapping in general from a
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rigorous electromagnetic perspective. Applying this theory,
2
we show that the 4n limit is only correct in bulk structures.
In the nanophotonic regime, the absorption enhancement
2
factor can go far beyond 4n with proper design. As a
specific example, we numerically demonstrate a light-
trapping scheme with an absorption enhancement factor
2
of 12 × 4n over a virtually unlimited spectral bandwidth
and with near-isotropic angular response.
THEORY
Our theory[1] is based on the observation that light-
trapping effect in a weakly absorptive material is mainly
contributed by optical resonant modes supported by the
medium [2-3]. The light-trapping enhancement is then the
aggregate contribution from all resonances. Therefore, the
limit of light-trapping enhancement can be obtained by
identifying two factors: the maximum absorption
contribution of individual resonances, and the total number
of resonances.
We first consider the contribution of a single resonance.
To characterize the absorption by a resonance over a
broad spectrum, we introduce spectral cross section
∞
defined as σ = ∫−∞
A (ω ) d ω , where A ( ω ) is the
absorption spectrum of a resonance illuminated by an
incident plane wave. Using a coupled mode theory [4], we
show that when coupled to N free-space plane waves
propagating in different directions, the maximum spectral
across section is σ max = 2πγ i / N where γ i is the intrinsic
loss rate due to material absorption.
Assuming there are M resonances over frequency range
of ∆ω in a given medium, we can then calculate the
upper limit for the absorption, by summing over the
maximal spectral cross-section of all resonances:
A=
∑σ max
=
2πγ i M
(1)
∆ω ∆ω N
Comparing Eq (1) to the single-pass absorption, we can
obtain the upper limit of the enhancement factor.
We can apply Eq. (1) to conventional bulk medium to
2
recover the Yablonovitch 4 n limit. We consider a
structure with period L and thickness d that are both much
larger than the wavelength. In this case, the resonance
can be approximated as propagating plane waves inside
the bulk structure. Thus, the intrinsic decay rate for each
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Fig.1 a) A nanophotonic light-trapping structure. The scattering layer consists of a square lattice of air groove
patterns with periodicity L = 1200nm. The thicknesses of the scattering, cladding, and active layers are 80nm,
60nm, and 5nm respectively. The mirror layer is a perfect electric conductor. b) The profile of electric-field
intensity for the fundamental waveguide mode. Fields are strongly confined in the active layer. To obtain the
waveguide mode profile, the scattering layer is modeled by a uniform slab with an averaged dielectric constant.
c) Absorption spectrum for normally incident light. The spectrally-averaged absorption (red solid line) is much
higher than both the single pass absorption (light gray dashed line) and the absorption as predicted by the limit
of 4nL2 (dark gray dashed line). e) Absorption spectrum without light confinement. The structure is the same as
that of c) except that the dielectric constant of the active layer is now the same as the cladding layer. The dark
gray dashed line represents the absorption as predicted by the limit of 4nL2 d, f) Angular dependence of the
spectrally-averaged absorption enhancement factors. Incident angles are labeled on top of the semi-circles.
Incident planes are oriented at 0 (d) and 45 (f) degrees (azimuthal angles) with respect to the [10] direction of the
lattice. The red circles represent the 4nL2 limit.

resonance is related to material’s absorption coefficient Next we consider nano-scale light trapping where we
c show substantial enhancement beyond the conventional
α 0 by γ i = α 0 . The number of resonances in the limit. Specifically, when the thickness d of the film is
n sufficiently small as compared to the wavelength, one can
frequency range [ω, ω + δω ] is reach the single-mode regime where the film supports a
2
single waveguide mode band. In such a case, the number
 L   d 
3 2
8π n ω of resonances can be calculated as:
M =     δω . Because of the
c
3
 2π   2π  2
2π nwg ω  L
2

periodicity, the number of free-space modes that a M =   δω , while N is the same as
2
c
2
 2π 
 L 
2
2πω calculated before. Notice that in this case the number of
resonance can couple to is finite: N =   . modes no longer explicitly depends upon the thickness d
c
2
 2π  of the film. As a result we obtain the upper limit for the
Substitute M and N into Eq. (1), the upper limit for the absorption enhancement factor:
absorption coefficient for this system is then
2 λ α wg
AT = 4n α 0 d , which reproduces the Yablonovitch limit. F = nwg (2)
d α0
The derivation above illustrates that systems of random
roughness can in fact be understood by taking the L → ∞ α wg and nwg are the absorption coefficient and group
limit.
index of the waveguide mode respectively. Eq. (2)
indicates that substantial enhancement occurs when

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confining optical mode to deep subwavelength, i.e.
λ / d >> 2n .
SIMULATIONS
Guided by the theory outlined above, we numerically
demonstrate a nanophotonic scheme with an absorption
2
enhancement factor significantly exceeding 4n over a
broad frequency band and a wide range of incident
angles.
We consider a thin absorbing film with a thickness of 5nm
(Fig. 1a), consisting of a material with a refractive index
nL = 2.5 and a wavelength-independent absorption
length of 25 µm . A transparent cladding layer
trapping in thin-film photovoltaic cells," Opt.
Express, vol. 16, pp. 5385-5396, 2008.
[3] P. Bermel, et al., "Improving thin-film crystalline
silicon solar cell efficiencies with photonic
crystals," Opt. Express, vol. 15, pp. 16986-17000,
2007.
[4] H. A. Haus, Waves and fields in optoelectronics.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1984.
[5] V. R. Almeida, et al., "Guiding and confining light
in void nanostructure," Opt. Lett., vol. 29, pp.
1209-1211, 2004.

( nH = 12.5 ) is placed on top of the active layer. Such a

cladding layer serves two purposes. First, it enhances
density of state. The overall structure supports a
fundamental mode with group index nwg close to nH ,
which is much higher than that of the absorbing material.
Second, the index contrast between active and cladding
layer provides nanoscale field confinement. The
fundamental waveguide mode (Fig. 1b) is highly
concentrated in the low-index active layer [5]. Thus, the
geometry here allows the creation of a broad-band high-
index guided mode, with its energy highly concentrated in
the active layer.

Numerical simulation shows that device has a spectrally-

averaged absorption enhancement factor of F = 119 (red
line) for normally incident light. (All the absorption spectra
and enhancement factors are obtained by averaging s and
p polarized incident light.) This is well above the
2
Yablonovitch limit for both the active material ( 4 n L = 10 )
2
and the cladding material ( 4 n H = 50 ). Moreover, the
angular response is nearly isotropic (Fig. 1d, f). Thus such
enhancement cannot be attributed to the narrowing of
angular range in the emission cone, and instead is due
entirely to the nanoscale field confinement effect. To
illustrate the importance of nanoscale field confinement
enabled by the slot-waveguide effect[5], we change the
index of the material in the absorptive layer to a higher
value of nH . Such a structure does not exhibit the slot-
waveguide effect. The average enhancement in this case
is only 37, falling below the Yablonovitch limit of 50 (Fig.
1e).

REFERENCES

[1] Z. Yu, et al., "Fundamental limit of nanophotonic

light trapping for solar cells," arXiv:1004.2902v2
[physics.optics] 2010.
[2] M. Agrawal and P. Peumans, "Broadband optical
absorption enhancement through coherent light

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