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The effect of different surface plasmon polariton shapes on thin-film solar cell efficiency

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Abstract

The effects of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) on the efficiency, series resistance, and shunt resistance of thin-film Si solar cells are studied and analyzed in this work. Different SPP shapes and their effects on the optical and electrical properties and thereby the efficiency of thin-film solar cells are studied. Semiconductor and electromagnetic models are incorporated to study the electrical and optical behaviors of the thin-film solar cells, respectively, using COMSOL Multiphysics three-dimensional (3D) numerical simulation software. An efficiency of 14.76% is achieved for triangular SPPs, representing a 1.07% improvement compared with SPP-free solar cells. The solar cell electrical parameters are also extracted based on a single-diode equivalent model. The series resistance is decreased by 3% for solar cells having equilateral-triangle SPPs compared with SPP-free solar cells.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Communication and Computer Engineering, The Higher Institute of Engineering, El-Shorouk City, 11837, Egypt

    Khalil ElKhamisy & Salah Elagooz

  2. Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, Electrical Engineering Department, Ajman University, Ajman, United Arab Emirates

    Hamdy Abdelhamid

  3. Center of Nano-Electronics and Devices (CND), Zewail City of Science and Technology, 6th October City, Egypt

    Hamdy Abdelhamid

  4. Department of Electronics and Communications, Faculty of Electronic Engineering, Menoufia University, Menoufia, Egypt

    El-Sayed El-Rabaie

Authors
  1. Khalil ElKhamisy
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  2. Hamdy Abdelhamid
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  3. Salah Elagooz
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  4. El-Sayed El-Rabaie
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Correspondence to Khalil ElKhamisy.

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ElKhamisy, K., Abdelhamid, H., Elagooz, S. et al. The effect of different surface plasmon polariton shapes on thin-film solar cell efficiency. J Comput Electron 20, 1807–1814 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10825-021-01729-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10825-021-01729-0

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