Physics Commons^™

Plasmonic Nanostructures For The Absorption Enhancement Of Silicon Solar Cells, Nathan Matthias Burford

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this work, computational investigation of plasmonic nanostructures was conducted using the commercial finite element electromagnetics solver Ansys® HFSS. Arrays of silver toroid nanoparticles located on the surface of an amorphous silicon thin-film absorbing layer were studied for particle sizes ranging from 20 nm to 200 nm in outer diameter. Parametric optimization by calculating an approximation of the photocurrent enhancement due to the nanoparticles was performed to determine optimal surface coverage of the nanoparticles. A comparison was made between these optimized nanotoroid arrays and optimized nanosphere arrays based on spectral absorption enhancement and potential photocurrent enhancement in an amorphous silicon …

Plasmonic And Photonic Designs For Light Trapping In Thin Film Solar Cells, Liming Ji

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Thin film solar cells are promising to realize cheap solar energy. Compared to conventional wafer cells, they can reduce the use of semiconductor material by 90%. The efficiency of thin film solar cells, however, is limited due to insufficient light absorption. Sufficient light absorption at the bandgap of semiconductor requires a light path more than 10x the thickness of the semiconductor. Advanced designs for light trapping are necessary for solar cells to absorb sufficient light within a limited volume of semiconductor. The goal is to convert the incident light into a trapped mode in the semiconductor layer.

In this dissertation, …