Cicada wing inspire antireflective structures for solar cells

Inspired by cicada wings, a team of researchers in China form Shanghai Jiao Tong University biomorphic have fabricated TiO2 with antireflective structures (ARSs) using and a simple and inexpensive sol-gel templating process.

A 17-year cicada, Magicicada, Robert Evans Snodgrass, 1930 (Wikipedia)

 

The technology could be used into maximise photon input in solar cells. The work was published in Applied Physics Letters as open access as below:

Angle dependent antireflection property of TiO2 inspired by cicada wings (OPEN ACESS)

Imran Zada, Wang Zhang, Yao Li, Peng Sun, Nianjin Cai, Jiajun Gu, Qinglei Liu, Huilan Su and Di Zhang

 

Appl. Phys. Lett. 109, 153701 (2016); http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4962903

 

Inspired by cicada wings, biomorphic TiO2 with antireflective structures (ARSs) was precisely fabricated using a simple, inexpensive, and highly effective sol-gel process combined with subsequent calcination. It was confirmed that the fabricated biomorphic TiO2 not only effectively inherited the ARS but also exhibited high-performance angle dependent antireflective properties ranging from normal to 45°. Reflectance spectra demonstrated that the reflectivity of the biomorphic TiO2 with ARSs gradually changed from 1.4% to 7.8% with the increasing incidence angle over a large visible wavelength range. This angle dependent antireflective property is attributed to an optimized gradient refractive index between air and TiO2 via ARSs on the surface. Such surfaces with ARSs may have potential application in solar cells.