Assessing light absorption contributions in thin periodically-textured silicon absorbers under oblique illumination

Periodic texturing is one of the main techniques to enhance light absorption in thin-film solar cells. The presence of periodicity, such as grating, allows the excitation of guided modes in the structure, thus enhancing absorption. However, grating efficiency in exciting guided modes is highly dependent on the wavelength and incident angle of light. This is relevant especially in solar cells application, where the light source - the sun - is broadband and largely angle-dependent. Nevertheless, most of literature only focuses on the frequency response of periodic texturing, thus neglecting the effect of angular movement of the sun. In this work we use Fourier expansion to calculate the absorption of each type of mode (guided and non-guided) in an absorptive periodic waveguide. The structure is illuminated with TM and TE polarized light and under three different incident angles. Using this method, we are able to calculate the contribution of a guided resonance to total absorption for different angles of incidence. The work here developed and supported by rigorous numerical calculations can be used to better understand light propagation in a periodic waveguide structure, such as thin-film solar cells.