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Influences of Nanostructure Arrays on Light Absorption in Amorphous Silicon Thin-Film Solar Cells

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Abstract

By means of finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) numerical method, we investigate the possibility to enhance the light absorption in solar cells by employing different nanostructures. The solar cells are made of 100-nm-thick amorphous silicon (α-Si). The impacts of gold nanohole arrays, dielectric nanosphere arrays, and gold nanoparticle arrays on the light absorption are simulated, compared, and analyzed. The results show that gold nanohole arrays functioning as the back reflective layer, dielectric nanosphere arrays, and gold nanoparticle arrays can significantly enhance the light absorption for the solar cells, and the former two can increase the short-circuit current by more than 40 %, showing a great potential to improve the utilization efficiency of solar energy.

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Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the financial support by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51375400 and 51375399), the Program for the New Star of Science and Technology of Shaanxi Province (Grant No. 2014KJXX-38), the Aeronautical Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 2013ZC53036), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No. 3102014JC02020504), and the Program for the New Century Excellent Talents in University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Micro/Nano Systems for Aerospace (Ministry of Education), Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, 710072, Shaanxi, China

    Xiaoying Li, Xiaoyun Zhang, Yiting Yu, Yechuan Zhu & Jinshuai Diao

  2. Shaanxi Province Key Laboratory of Micro and Nano Electro-Mechanical Systems, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, 710072, Shaanxi, China

    Xiaoying Li, Xiaoyun Zhang, Yiting Yu, Yechuan Zhu & Jinshuai Diao

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  1. Xiaoying Li
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  2. Xiaoyun Zhang
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  3. Yiting Yu
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  4. Yechuan Zhu
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Correspondence to Yiting Yu.

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Li, X., Zhang, X., Yu, Y. et al. Influences of Nanostructure Arrays on Light Absorption in Amorphous Silicon Thin-Film Solar Cells. Plasmonics 11, 1073–1079 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11468-015-0144-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11468-015-0144-7

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