Bowtie-based plasmonic metal nanoparticle complexes to enhance the opto-electronic performance of thin-film solar cells.

Abstract

This computational study investigates the possibility of using different multi-particle plasmonic nanoparticle complexes to enhance the opto-electronic performance of thin-film solar cells (TFSCs). The nanoparticle complexes are in a bowtie nanocomplex (BNC) configuration whereby each of the BNCs comprises a set of bowtie nanoantenna and a spherical nanoparticle. The results show that such plasmonic BNCs significantly enhance the opto-electronic performance of thin-film solar cells when compared to a bare TFSC or a TFSC modified with a single plasmonic nanoparticle. These results indicate a potential new, to the best of our knowledge, avenue of designing high-performance TFSCs of the future.