Efficient broadband light absorption in elliptical nanohole arrays for photovoltaic application.

We propose a perpendicular elliptical silicon nanohole (PE-SiNH) array for light absorption in thin film silicon solar cells. Our analysis shows that this architecture is capable of increasing the absorption of a thin film silicon solar cell by 11.3% in comparison to that of the optimal circular SiNH array. The process of breaking the mirror symmetries is responsible for the increase of the coupled modes. The PE-SiNH structures show additional near-zero spatial Fourier components compared with the circular SiNH structure, which helps to couple more incident light into slow Bloch modes. The mode interaction between adjacent elliptical nanoholes is in favor of the coupling of the incident light into channeling modes and, therefore, enhances light absorption in the short wavelength region.