Hybrid approach simulations for light propagation problems
- Resource Type
- Conference
- Authors
- Dorodnyy, Alexander; Shklover, Valery; Hafner, Christian; Leuthold, Juerg
- Source
- 2014 IEEE 40th Photovoltaic Specialist Conference (PVSC) Photovoltaic Specialist Conference (PVSC), 2014 IEEE 40th. :2220-2223 Jun, 2014
- Subject
- Components, Circuits, Devices and Systems
Finite element analysis
Substrates
Periodic structures
Scattering
Electromagnetic fields
Photovoltaic cells
Geometry
Finite Element Method
Fourier Modal Method
optics
photonic crystals
photovoltaics
scattering matrix
- Language
- ISSN
- 0160-8371
In the past decade numerical methods started to play a major role in the field of solar cells design and optimization. We review most prominent numerical techniques for solving Maxwell's equations and for calculation of a solar cells absorption efficiency. Since all methods have their advantages and drawbacks, we combine them into a hybrid technique to benefit as much as possible from the strong sides of each method. The resulting hybrid approach is shown to be highly valuable for simulations of complex photonic structures. It allows us to benefit from advantages of different techniques while avoiding most of their disadvantages. The proposed method is based on the scattering matrix technique that can be applied to a large variety of numerical methods and can also benefit greatly from geometric symmetries of structures to be analyzed.