Design, Modeling, and Optimization of Thin and Ultra-thin Photonic Power Converters Operating at 1310 nm Laser Illumination

Abstract

Photonic power converters (PPCs) are one of the main components of optical power transmission systems, converting optical power injected by a monochromatic optical source (laser or LED) to electrical power via the photovoltaic effect. This thesis focuses on designing and optimizing ultra-thin single junction InAlGaAs PPC with integrated back reflectors (BR) for operation at the telecommunications wavelength of 1310 nm and numerically studies the light trapping capability of three BR types: planar, cubic nanotextured, and pyramidal nanotextured. Optical simulations were performed by coupling finite difference time-domain (FDTD) calculations with a particle swarm optimization, while electrical simulations were carried out by the finite element drift-diffusion method. With 90% absorptance, optoelectrical simulations revealed that ultra-thin PPCs with 5.6- to 8.4-fold thinner absorber layers can have open circuit voltages (Voc) that are 9-12% larger and power conversion efficiencies that are 9-10% (relative) larger than conventional thick PPCs. Of the studied BR designs, pyramidal BRs exhibit the highest performance for ultra-thin designs, reaching an efficiency of 43.2% with 90% absorptance, demonstrating the superior light trapping capability relative to planar and cubic nanotextured BRs. The sensitivity of optical absorptance to variations in device thickness and incident light wavelength is also investigated numerically in thin PPCs with planar and pyramidal nanotextured BRs. Optical simulation results revealed that BR-induced resonances shift from constructive to destructive interference with thickness variations of ~100 nm and ~70 nm in planar and pyramidal nanotextured BRs, respectively. Also in PPCs with pyramidal BR, a 50 nm variation of the nanotextures’ geometry (base width and height of pyramids) drops the absorptance by more than 25% (absolute).