The paper investigates the light incoupling into c-Si solar cells due to the excitation of localized surface plasmon resonances in periodic metallic nanoparticles by finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) technique. A significant enhancement of AM1.5G solar radiation transmission has been demonstrated by depositing nanoparticles of various metals on the upper surface of a semi-infinite Si substrate. Plasmonic nanostructures located close to the cell surface can scatter incident light efficiently into the cell. Al nanoparticles were found to be superior to Ag, Cu, and Au nanoparticles due to the improved transmission of light over almost the entire solar spectrum and, thus, can be a potential low-cost plasmonic metal for large-scale implementation of solar cells.

Downloaded From: http://nanophotonics.spiedigitallibrary.org/ on 07/24/2015 Terms of Use: http://spiedigitallibrary.org/ss/TermsOfUse.aspxAbstract. Our present work proposes a systematic geometric model comprising vertical dual silver nanostrips placed on the top of a thin-film amorphous silicon solar cell. In the first layer, cylindrical silver nanostrips are embedded in the antireflection coating and the other one is placed just above it. Combining the two improves the absorption over the wide spectral range. A finite-difference time domain technique has been used to confirm that a vertical dual silver nanostructure improves absorption over a broad spectrum in comparison to a single layer. Size, shape, and interspacing of the nanostructures have been tuned to obtain the preeminent results. This optimized geometry gives a total quantum efficiency of 32.02% under AM1.5G. Downloaded From: http://nanophotonics.spiedigitallibrary.org/ on 07/24/2015 Terms of Use: http://spiedigitallibrary.org/ss/TermsOfUse.aspx Shokeen et al.: Enhanced performance of a thin-film solar cell by metallic nanostructural vertical. Downloaded From: http://nanophotonics.spiedigitallibrary.org/ on 07/24/2015 Terms of Use: http://spiedigitallibrary.org/ss/TermsOfUse.aspx Shokeen et al.: Enhanced performance of a thin-film solar cell by metallic nanostructural vertical. Downloaded From: http://nanophotonics.spiedigitallibrary.org/ on 07/24/2015 Terms of Use: http://spiedigitallibrary.org/ss/TermsOfUse.aspx Shokeen et al.: Enhanced performance of a thin-film solar cell by metallic nanostructural vertical. Downloaded From: http://nanophotonics.spiedigitallibrary.org/ on 07/24/2015 Terms of Use: http://spiedigitallibrary.org/ss/TermsOfUse.aspx Shokeen et al.: Enhanced performance of a thin-film solar cell by metallic nanostructural vertical. Downloaded From: http://nanophotonics.spiedigitallibrary.org/ on 07/24/2015 Terms of Use: http://spiedigitallibrary.org/ss/TermsOfUse.aspx Shokeen et al.: Enhanced performance of a thin-film solar cell by metallic nanostructural vertical.

Use of surface plasmons in photovoltaics is a recent and fast emerging field of interest of research that exploit the unique optical properties of metallic nano-structures. Using surface plasmons for guiding and localizing light at nanoscales can be used to improve optical absorption in thin-film solar cells. The present work focuses on the study of absorption enhancement using a periodic array of cylindrical silver nanowire placed on a thin silicon substrate. Studies have been made to optimize the particle size and the inter-particle distance for maximum absorption of AM1.5G solar radiation within the substrate. An enhancement with a factor of around 1.32 is observed for nanoparticles with a diameter of 140 nm and an inter-particle distance of 360 nm. Blue-shifting of resonance wavelength with increasing inter-particle distance is observed. FDTD technique has been used for numerical modelling and investigation of plasmonic solar cells.

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