Wednesday, February 22, 2012

1202.4601 (Kevin Vynck et al.)

Disordered Optical Modes for Photon Management    [PDF]

Kevin Vynck, Matteo Burresi, Francesco Riboli, Diederik S. Wiersma
Wave transport in disordered systems is a vast research topic, ranging from
electrons in semiconductors, to light in random dielectrics, to cold atoms in
laser speckles. In optics, light transport is conveyed by random
electromagnetic modes and the wave can be localized about a point or extended
throughout the system, depending on disorder strength, structural correlations
and dimensionality of the system. Light localization phenomena are more
dominantly present in two-dimensional systems than in three-dimensional ones
and their optical modes can be tailored to a greater extent. Here, we show that
it is possible to make use of the properties of lower-dimensional disordered
structures to obtain photon management in three-dimensional space. More
particularly, we argue that two-dimensional disorder and wave interferences can
be exploited to improve the performance of light absorbers or emitters. Our
findings have direct applications for enhancing the absorption efficiency of
third-generation solar cells in a relatively simple and easy-to-implement way
and provide unique opportunities for high extraction efficiency light-emitting
diodes.
View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1202.4601

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