Superquadric Nanostructures for Enhanced Absorption in Solar Cells

In the recent past, nanostructured photovoltaics research has gathered significant momentum due to the promise of high efficiency solar cell designs. In lieu of this nascent technology, this paper investigates the electromagnetic performance of Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) superquadric nanostructures for future solar cell designs. The superquadric function allows for the investigation of different shapes ranging from hexagonal nanopyramid to a hexagonal nanopillar array. The presence of nanostructures reduces the optical reflection and increases absorption as compared to conventional flat cell geometries. Different superquadric nanostructures are compared for their reflection performance properties. The elliptical superquadric nanostructures are used as a baseline for different parametric studies and some observations are made.