Novel Concepts for Light Management in Flexible Photovoltaics

Abstract

This one year project explored novel concepts for light management in light weight, flexible solar cells by engineering surface topography to enhance the overall efficiency of photovoltaic (PV) devices. During the project methods were developed to enable the fabrication of PV substrates with corrugated, buckled surfaces formed by thermal, mechanical, and chemical processes. These substrates were then used in the fabrication of PV devices based upon thin film small molecule organic materials and thin film solution processed quantum dot materials; two emerging technologies with inherently low cost and scalable manufacturing methods. This allowed us to demonstrate that high surface area topographies can increase light absorption in thin film PV devices and lead to increased performance by enhancing the devices' ability to harvest incident light.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 24, 2011
Accession Number
ADA546463

Entities

People

  • Ethan Klem
  • Jay Lewis
  • Michael D. Dickey

Organizations

  • RTI International

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Absorption
  • Absorption Spectra
  • Cells
  • Department Of Defense
  • Fabrication
  • Films
  • Materials
  • Materials Laboratories
  • Materials Processing
  • Materials Science
  • Molecules
  • Optoelectronic Devices
  • Organic Materials
  • Quantum Dots
  • Small Molecules
  • Solar Cells
  • Thin Films

Fields of Study

  • Materials science

Readers

  • Nanofabrication and Microfabrication.
  • Quantum Dot Semiconductor Device Photonics and Graphene Optoelectronic Materials and THz Physics.
  • Solar Photovoltaics and Thermoelectric Devices.

Technology Areas

  • Quantum Computing