Increasing the Transmission Power by Use of an Antireflecting Dielectric Layer in Microwave Therapy

Reflection and transmission of the plane electromagnetic waves at a frequencyof 2450 MHz at normal incidence on the body surface are studied according to electro-magnetic theory.Our results showed that only 43% electromagnetic energy can penetrateinto the body tissues and 57% electromagnetic energy is reflected back to the air.Thenthe concept of input wave impedance is introduced to study how to decrease the energy re-flection coefficient of the plane electromagnetic waves incident vertically upon the three-layer model of the tissues (skin-fat-muscle).Our results showed that provided the thick-nesses of the skin and fat layers are given,we can evaluate theoretically the thickness andrelative permittivity of the dielectric layer which could raise the energy transmission coef-ficient of the incident waves to 99.99%.

Theoretical analysis and engineering application of controllable shock wave technology for enhancing coalbed methane in soft and low‑permeability coal seams

Coalbed methane(CBM)is a significant factor in triggering coal and gas outburst disaster,while also serving as a clean fuel.With the increasing depth of mining operations,coal seams that exhibit high levels of gas content and low permeability have become increasingly prevalent.While controllable shockwave(CSW)technology has proven effective in enhancing CBM in laboratory settings,there is a lack of reports on its field applications in soft and low-permeability coal seams.This study establishes the governing equations for stress waves induced by CSW.Laplace numerical inversion was employed to analyse the dynamic response of the coal seam during CSW antireflection.Additionally,quantitative calculations were performed for the crushed zone,fracture zone,and effective CSW influence range,which guided the selection of field test parameters.The results of the field test unveiled a substantial improvement in the gas permeability coefficient,the average rate of pure methane flowrate,and the mean gas flowrate within a 10 m radius of the antireflection borehole.These enhancements were notable,showing increases of 3 times,13.72 times,and 11.48 times,respectively.Furthermore,the field test performed on the CSW antireflection gas extraction hole cluster demonstrated a noticeable improvement in CBM extraction.After antireflection,the maximum peak gas concentration and maximum peak pure methane flow reached 71.2%and 2.59 m^(3)/min,respectively.These findings will offer valuable guidance for the application of CSW antireflection technology in soft and low-permeability coal seams.

Irregular LIPSS produced on metals by single linearly polarized femtosecond laser

Currently,supra-wavelength periodic surface structures(SWPSS)are only achievable on silica dielectrics and silicon by femtosecond(fs)laser ablation,while triangular and rhombic laser induced periodic surface structures(LIPSS)are achievable by circularly polarized or linear cross-polarized femtosecond laser.This is the first work to demonstrate the possibility of generating SWPSS on Sn and triangular and rhombic LIPSS on W,Mo,Ta,and Nb using a single linearly polarized femtosecond laser.We discovered,for the first time,SWPSS patches with each possessing its own orientation,which are completely independent of the light polarization direction,thus,breaking the traditional rules.Increasing the laser power enlarges SWPSS periods from 4–6μm to 15–25μm.We report a maximal period of 25μm,which is the largest period ever reported for SWPSS,~10 and~4 times the maximal periods(2.4μm/6.5μm)of SWPSS ever achieved by fs and ns laser ablation,respectively.The formation of triangular and rhombic LIPSS does not depend on the laser(power)or processing(scan interval and scan methodology)parameters but strongly depends on the material composition and is unachievable on other metals,such as Sn,Al,Ti,Zn,and Zr.This paper proposes and discusses possible mechanisms for molten droplet generation/spread/solidification,Marangoni convection flow for SWPSS formation,and linear-to-circular polarization transition for triangular and rhombic LIPSS formation.Reflectance and iridescence of as-prepared SWPSS and LIPSS are characterized.It was found that besides insufficient ablation on W,the iridescence density of Ta-,Mo-,Nb-LIPSS follows the sequence of melting temperatures:Ta>Mo>Nb,which indicates that the melting temperature of metals may affect the regularity of LIPSS.This work may inspire significant interest in further enriching the diversity of LIPSS and SWPSS.

Optimization of broadband omnidirectional antireflection coatings for solar cells

Broadband and omnidirectional antireflection coating is generally an effective way to improve solar cell efficiency, because the destructive interference between the reflected and incident light can maximize the light transmission into the absorption layer. In this paper, we report the incident quantum efficiency ηin, not incident energy or power, as the evaluation function by the ant colony algorithm optimization method, which is a swarm-based optimization method. Also, SPCTRL2 is proposed to be incorporated for accurate optimization because the solar irradiance on a receiver plane is dependent on position, season, and time. Cities of Quito, Beijing and Moscow are selected for two-and three-layer antireflective coating optimization over λ = [300,1100] nm and θ = [0°, 90°]. The ηin increases by 0.26%, 1.37% and 4.24% for the above 3 cities, respectively, compared with that calculated by other rigorous optimization algorithms methods, which is further verified by the effect of position and time dependent solar spectrum on the antireflective coating design.

Fabrication and Optical Properties of Silicon Nanowires Arrays by Electroless Ag-catalyzed Etching

In order to realize ultralow surface reflectance and broadband antireflection effects which common pyramidal textures and antireflection coatings can't achieve in photovoltaic industry,we used low-cost and easy-made Ag-catalyzed etching techniques to synthesize silicon nanowires(Si NWs) arrays on the substrate of single-crystalline silicon.The dense vertically-aligned Si NWs arrays are fabricated by local oxidation and selective dissolution of Si in etching solution containing Ag catalyst.The Si NWs arrays with 3 μm in depth make reflectance reduce to less than 3% in the range of 400 to 1000 nm while reflectance gradually reached the optimum value with the increasing of etching time.The antireflection of Si NWs arrays are based on indexgraded mechanism:Si NWs arrays on a subwavelength scale strongly scatter incident light and have graded refractive index that enhance the incidence of light in usable wavelength range.However,surface recombination of Si NWs arrays are deteriorated due to numerous dangling bonds and residual Ag particles.

Large-scale, adhesive-free and omnidirectional 3D nanocone anti-reflection films for high performance photovoltaics

An effective and low-cost front-side anti-reflection(AR) technique has long been sought to enhance the performance of highly efficient photovoltaic devices due to its capability of maximizing the light absorption in photovoltaic devices. In order to achieve high throughput fabrication of nanostructured flexible and anti-reflection films, large-scale, nano-engineered wafer molds were fabricated in this work. Additionally, to gain in-depth understanding of the optical and electrical performance enhancement with AR films on polycrystalline Si solar cells, both theoretical and experimental studies were performed. Intriguingly,the nanocone structures demonstrated an efficient light trapping effect which reduced the surface reflection of a solar cell by17.7% and therefore enhanced the overall electric output power of photovoltaic devices by 6% at normal light incidence. Notably, the output power improvement is even more significant at a larger light incident angle which is practically meaningful for daily operation of solar panels. The application of the developed AR films is not only limited to crystalline Si solar cells explored here, but also compatible with any types of photovoltaic technology for performance enhancement.

Optimal design of sub-wavelength metal rectangular gratings for polarizing beam splitter based on effective medium theory

A novel optimal design of sub-wavelength metal rectangular gratings for the polarizing beam splitter （PBS） is proposed. The method is based on effective medium theory and the method of designing single layer antireflection coating. The polarization performance of PBS is discussed by rigorous couple-wave analysis （RCWA） method at a wavelength of 1550 nm. The result shows that sub-wavelength metal rectangular grating is characterized by a high reflectivity, like metal films for TE polarization, and high transmissivity, like dielectric films for TM polarization. The optimal design accords well with the results simulated by RCWA method.

Recent progress of efficient flexible solar cells based on nanostructures

Flexible solar cells are important photovoltaics(PV)technologies due to the reduced processing temperature,less material consumption and mechanical flexibility,thus they have promising applications for portable devices and building-integrated applications.However,the efficient harvesting of photons is the core hindrance towards efficient,flexible PV.Light management by nanostructures and nanomaterials has opened new pathways for sufficient solar energy harvesting.Nanostructures on top surfaces provide an efficient pathway for the propagation of light.Aside from suppressing incident light reflection,micro-structured back-reflectors reduce transmission via multiple reflections.Nanostructures themselves can be the absorber layer.Photovoltaics based on high-crystallinity nanostructured light absorbers demonstrate enhanced power conversion efficiency(PCE)and excellent mechanical flexibility.To acquire a deep understanding of the impacts of nanostructures,herein,a concise overview of the recent development in the design and application of nanostructures and nanomaterials for photovoltaics is summarized.

Design of wideband graded-index antireflection coatings at oblique light incidence

We suggest a design method of graded-refractive-index （GRIN） antireflection （AR） coating for s-polarized or p- polarized light at off-normal incidence. The spectrum characteristic of the designed antireflection coating with a quintic effective refractive-index profile for a given state of polarization has been discussed. In addition, the genetic algorithm was used to optimize the refractive index profile of the GRIN antireflection for reducing the mean reflectance of s- and p-polarizations. The average reflectance loss was reduced to only 0.04% by applying optimized GRIN AR coatings onto BK7 glass over the wavelength range from 400 to 800 nm at the incident angle of θo = 70°.

Modified-DBR-based semi-omnidirectional multilayer anti-reflection coating for tandem solar cells

In this paper, multilayer antireflection coatings are designed by modifying the thickness of two and three paired layer distributed Bragg reflector （DBR） structure. Our proposed DBR-based structures show antireflection behaviors, in spite of the reflection treatment in traditional DBR structures. Firstly, the proposed structures are designed to be equivalent to the theoretical ideal triple-layer （TL） antireflection coating （ARC）. Therefore, the problem of finding a suitable material for the middle layer of triple structure is solved. Simulation results show the significant equivalency for the reflectance of proposed structures to the ideal TL ARC at the same wavelengths and incident angles. Also, the design of the structure is changed in order to present the constant reflectance coefficient over a wide range of wavelengths. This structure enhances the omni-directionality of the multilayer ARC.

Fabrication of Anti-reflecting Si Nano-structures with Low Aspect Ratio by Nano-sphere Lithography Technique

Nano-structured photon management is currently an interesting topic since it can enhance the optical absorption and reduce the surface reflection which will improve the performance of many kinds of optoelectronic devices, such as Si-based solar cells and light emitting diodes. Here, we report the fabrication of periodically nano-patterned Si structures by using polystyrene nano-sphere lithography technique. By changing the diameter of nano-spheres and the dry etching parameters, such as etching time and etching power, the morphologies of formed Si nano-structures can be well controlled as revealed by atomic force microscopy.A good broadband antireflection property has been achieved for the formed periodically nano-patterned Si structures though they have the low aspect ratio(<0.53). The reflection can be significantly reduced compared with that of flat Si substrate in a wavelength range from 400 nm to 1200 nm. The weighted mean reflection under the AM1.5 solar spectrum irradiation can be as low as 3.92% and the corresponding optical absorption is significantly improved, which indicates that the present Si periodic nano-structures can be used in Si-based thin film solar cells.

Optimization of Multi-layer AR Coatings for GaInP/GaAs Tandem Solar Cells

The AR coatings for GaInP/GaAs tandem solar cell are simulated.Results show that,under the condition of the lack of suitable encapsulation, a very low energy loss could be reached on MgF2/ZnS system; in the case of glass encapsulation,the Al2O3/ZrO2 and Al2O3/TiO2 systems are appropriate choice; for AlInP window layer,the thickness of 30 nm is suitable.

Optimization and Modeling of Antireflective Layers for Silicon Solar Cells: In Search of Optimal Materials

Depositing an antireflection coating on the front surface of solar cells allows a significant reduction in reflection losses. It thus allows an increase in the efficiency of the cells. A modeling of the refractive indices and the thicknesses of an optimal antireflection coating has been proposed. Thus, the average reflective losses can be reduced to less than 8% and less than 2.4% in a large wavelength range respectively for a single-layer and double-layer anti-reflective coating types. However, the difficulty of finding these model materials (materials with the same refractive index) led us to introduce two notions: the refractive index difference and the thickness difference. These two notions allowed us to compare the reflectivity of the antireflection layer in silicon surface. Thus, the lower the refractive index difference is, the more the material resembles to the ideal material (in refractive index), and thus its reflective losses are minimal. SiNx and SiO2/TiO2 antireflection layers, in the wavelength range between 400 and 1100 nm, have reduced the average reflectivity losses to less than 9% and 2.3% respectively.

Wide-angle and broadband graded-refractive-index antireflection coatings

The design and fabrication of graded-refractive-index （GRIN） antireflection （AR） coatings with wide-angle and broadband characteristics are demonstrated. The optimization of the graded-index profiles with a genetic algorithm is used in the design of the GRIN AR coatings. The average reflectance over a wavelength range from 400 nm to 800 nm and angles of incidence from 0° to 80° could be reduced to only 0.1% by applying an optimized AR coating onto BK7 glass. The optimization of step-graded GRIN AR coating is then further investigated in detail. A two-layer AR coating was deposited by electron beam evaporation with glancing angle deposition technology, and the positional homogeneity was improved by depositing the film from two opposite directions. The microstructure of the AR coating was investigated by scanning electron microscopy, and the residual reflectances of the coating sample are in agreement with theoretical calculations. The optimized GRIN AR coatings are beneficial to increasing the efficiency of light utilization.

Device simulation of quasi-two-dimensional perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells towards 30%-efficiency

Perovskite/silicon(Si) tandem solar cells have been recognized as the next-generation photovoltaic technology with efficiency over 30% and low cost. However, the intrinsic instability of traditional three-dimensional(3D) hybrid perovskite seriously hinders the lifetimes of tandem devices. In this work, the quasi-two-dimensional(2D)(BA)_(2)(MA)_(n-1)Pbn I_(3n+1)(n = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)(where MA denotes methylammonium and BA represents butylammonium), with senior stability and wider bandgap, are first used as an absorber of semitransparent top perovskite solar cells(PSCs) to construct a fourterminal(4T) tandem devices with a bottom Si-heterojunction cell. The device model is established by Silvaco Atlas based on experimental parameters. Simulation results show that in the optimized tandem device, the top cell(n = 4) obtains a power conversion efficiency(PCE) of 17.39% and the Si bottom cell shows a PCE of 11.44%, thus an overall PCE of 28.83%. Furthermore, by introducing a 90-nm lithium fluoride(LiF) anti-reflection layer to reduce the surface reflection loss, the current density(J_(sc)) of the top cell is enhanced from 15.56 m A/cm^(2) to 17.09 m A/cm^(2), the corresponding PCE reaches 19.05%, and the tandem PCE increases to 30.58%. Simultaneously, in the cases of n = 3, 4, and 5, all the tandem PCEs exceed the limiting theoretical efficiency of Si cells. Therefore, the 4T quasi-2D perovskite/Si devices provide a more cost-effective tandem strategy and long-term stability solutions.

Accuracy design of ultra-low residual reflection coatings for laser optics

Refractive index inhomogeneity is one of the important characteristics of optical coating material, which is one of the key factors to produce loss to the ultra-low residual reflection coatings except using the refractive index inhomogeneity to obtain gradient-index coating. In the normal structure of antireflection coatings for center wavelength at 532 nm, the physical thicknesses of layer H and layer L are 22.18 nm and 118.86 nm, respectively. The residual reflectance caused by refractive index inhomogeneity（the degree of inhomogeneous is between -0.2 and 0.2） is about 200 ppm, and the minimum reflectivity wavelength is between 528.2 nm and 535.2 nm. A new numerical method adding the refractive index inhomogeneity to the spectra calculation was proposed to design the laser antireflection coatings, which can achieve the design of antireflection coatings with ppm residual reflection by adjusting physical thickness of the couple layers. When the degree of refractive index inhomogeneity of the layer H and layer L is-0.08 and 0.05 respectively, the residual reflectance increase from zero to 0.0769% at 532 nm. According to the above accuracy numerical method, if layer H physical thickness increases by 1.30 nm and layer L decrease by 4.50 nm, residual reflectance of thin film will achieve to 2.06 ppm. When the degree of refractive index inhomogeneity of the layer H and layer L is 0.08 and -0.05 respectively, the residual reflectance increase from zero to 0.0784% at 532 nm. The residual reflectance of designed thin film can be reduced to 0.8 ppm by decreasing the layer H of 1.55 nm while increasing the layer L of 4.94 nm.

Graded index broadband antireflection coating prepared by glancing angle deposition for a high-power laser system

This paper reports that SiO2 is selected to fabricate broadband antireflection （AR） coatings on fused silica substrate by using glancing angle deposition and physical vapour deposition. Through accurate control of the graded index of the SiO2 layer, transmittance of thc graded broadband AR coating can achieve an average value of 98% across a spectral range of 300-1850 nm. Moreover, a laser-induced damage threshold measurement of the fabricated AR coating is performed by using a one-on-one protocol according to ISOl1254-1, resulting in an average damage threshold of 17.2 J/cm2.

Employing SiO_2 Buffer Layer to Improve Adhesion of the Frequency-doubled Antireflection Coating on LBO

Frequency-doubled antireflection coatings simultaneously effective at 1064 nm and 532 nm were deposited on the lithium triborate （LiB3O5 or LBO） crystals using the electron beam evaporation method. Comparing with the sample without buffer layer, it is found that the adhesion of the sample with buffer layer of SiO2 between coating and LBO substrate is improved significantly from 137.4 mN to greater than 200 mN. And the laser-induced damage threshold is increased by 20% from 15.1 J/cm^2 to 18.6 J/cm^2. The strengthening mechanism of adhesion of the buffer layer of SiO2 is discussed by considering full plastic indentation and shear theory.

Pyramid-Textured Antireflective Silicon Surface In Graphene Oxide/Single-Wall Carbon Nanotube–Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells

Antireflection layers are commonly used in photovoltaics to increase light absorption and therefore increase maximum photocurrent.Here,pyramid structures are created on Si surfaces with alkaline solution etching.The extent of pyramid coverage depends directly on the reaction time and as a result,the surface reflectance decreases with reaction time.