Design and analysis of thin film GaAs solar cells using silver nanoparticle plasmons

摘要

In this paper, we present a design and analysis of thin film GaAs solar cells using silver nanoparticle array. In the front surface design of GaAs solar cells, we assembled silver nanoparticle array on the top of quarter wavelength antireflection layers. For rear surface design, a reflection layer structure is designed using surface plasmon effects induced by the silver nanoparticle array. The transmittance of light for front and rear surfaces is monitored by using finite difference time domain (FDTD) method in the wavelength range of 400-900 nm. The simulation results confirm that the utilization of light within solar cells may be increased by optimizing the structural parameters associated with silver nanoparticle array. This analysis also revealed that grating characteristics of silver nanoparticle array and surface plasmon effects induced by silver nanoparticles play important roles for effective design of GaAs solar cells.