Doubling the Near?Infrared Photocurrent in a Solar Cell via Omni?Resonant Coherent Perfect Absorption

Minimizing the material usage in thin-film solar cells can reduce manufacturing costs and enable mechanically flexible implementations, but concomitantly diminishes optical absorption. Coherent effects help alleviate this inevitable drawback at discrete frequencies. For example, coherent perfect absorption guarantees that light is fully absorbed a thin layer regardless of or thickness—but only on resonance. Here, it shown “omni-resonance” delivers such enhancement over broad bandwidth by structuring field to nullify angular dispersion intrinsic resonant structures. After embedding an amorphous-silicon photovoltaic cell planar cavity, pre-conditioning incident using alignment-free arrangement severs link between cavity-photon lifetime, thereby rendering cavity omni-resonant. Coherently enhanced near-infrared doubles photocurrent targeted spectral range 660–740 nm where every wavelength resonates. These results may pave way transparent optimally harvest light.