Project Overview

Reflections from a photovoltaic (PV) cell present a significant source of efficiency loss in devices today. Maximizing efficiency requires that incident light is not reflected en route to the absorber layer and that the light that does enter is not subsequently reflected back out or transmitted through the device i.e asymmetric transmission is required. Metasurfaces provide a flexible design paradigm to enable the engineering of electromagnetic space and controlling the propagation of light and its interaction with matter through subwavelength structuring.

This project benefits the widespread adoption of solar technologies, by maximizing the economic efficiency of energy conversion through enhanced light matter interaction enabled by incorporation of metasurface layers that exhibit broadband asymmetric transmission within all traditional PV architectures. The project will produce a modeling platform for incorporation into all types of solar cells and device prototypes as deliverables.