Multi-objective particle swarm optimization on ultra-thin silicon solar cells

Abstract

Finding optimized parameters for any photonic device is a challenging problem, because as the search space enlarges the computation time and design complexity increase. For higher performance solar cells, various studies have been carried out to procure optimized parameters, to attain better performance and low cost as well. In this study, we used a multi-objective particle swarm optimization approach to search design space effectively and obtain fixed parameters for enhanced solar spectrum absorption. Numerical investigations are conducted for pyramid surface pattern, to find proper solar cell parameters for minimum reflection and maximum light trapping which give rise to enhanced absorption of photons. For the ultra-thin-film silicon solar cell having a thickness of 1 µm, a designed double-sided pyramid structure provides an ideal short-circuit photocurrent of 34.23 mA/cm2. In this regard, the proposed approach can be applied to different film thicknesses of semiconductors for different photonic applications by manipulating the reflection/transmission coefficient and light trapping mechanism.