Plasmonic enhanced ultra-thin solar cell: A combined approach using fractal and nano-antenna structure to maximize absorption

oleh: Ehsan Shaghouli, Nosrat Granpayeh, Negin Manavizadeh

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: Elsevier 2023-07-01

Deskripsi

In this study, a combined structure is proposed to develop ultra-thin silicon solar cells. This integrated structure consists of silver fractal-like nano-particles and leaky wave nanoantennas. The nano-cuboid pattern embedded inside anti-reflective coating benefits from different optical modes, such as surface plasmons and cavity modes, which trap more light and amplify the electric field in the upper region of the absorber layer. On the bottom side, the hybrid plasmonic mode in the structure of the optical nanoantenna makes it possible to focus and direct the incoming light on the bottom of the absorber layer and increase the optical pathlengths in the ultra-thin film solar cell. The nanoantenna behavior and three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain analysis show that photon absorptions improve significantly at long wavelength lightwaves through this proposed combined structure. The short circuit current enhancement of the solar cell under 1 sun standard illumination is obtained by a factor of 1.94 and 1.80 for TM and TE polarization of incident light, respectively. Due to the acceptable results for different incident angles and polarizations, ultra-thin thickness, and nano-cuboids synthesis feasibility, our structure has the potential to be applied in the design of miniaturized photovoltaic devices.