Content area
For the design of nanostructured semiconductor solar cells and photodetectors, optics modelling can be a useful tool that reduces the need of time-consuming and costly prototyping. We compare the performance of three of the most popular numerical simulation methods for nanostructure arrays: the Fourier modal method (FMM), the finite element method (FEM) and the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. The difference between the methods in computational time can be three orders of magnitude or more for a given system. The preferential method depends on the geometry of the nanostructures, the accuracy needed from the simulations, whether we are interested in the total, volume-integrated absorption or spatially resolved absorption, and whether we are interested in broadband or narrowband response. Based on our benchmarking results, we provide guidance on how to choose the method.
Details
Mathematical analysis;
Nanostructure;
Absorption;
Prototyping;
Finite difference time domain method;
Solar cells;
Time domain analysis;
Broadband;
Arrays;
Mathematical models;
Finite element analysis;
Narrowband;
Numerical methods;
Nanowires;
Geometric accuracy;
Computing time;
Computer simulation;
Photovoltaic cells
; Mäntynen, Henrik 2 ; Sadi, Toufik 3
; Matikainen, Antti 2 ; Turunen, Jari 4 ; Lipsanen, Harri 2 1 Department of Electronics and Nanoengineering, Aalto University, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland; Physics, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Åbo Akademi University, FI-20500 Turku, Finland
2 Department of Electronics and Nanoengineering, Aalto University, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland
3 Engineered Nanosystems Group, School of Science, Aalto University, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland
4 Institute of Photonics, University of Eastern Finland, FI-80101 Joensuu, Finland