The role of photonic and plasmonic modes in ultrathin amorphous silicon solar cells using finite difference time domain method

Abstract

In photovoltaic market, the enhancement of optical performance in an ultra-thin film amorphous silicon (a-Si) solar cell is significant. Our main objective is to design and simulate a highest current density by using various nanostructures integrated with ultrathin a-Si solar cells. In this proposed work, the various photonic and plasmonic nanostructures were used in front side of the absorber layer and enhanced the collection of charge carriers due to that an improved the current density in ultrathin a-Si solar cells. Using finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method, the obtained results indicate the optimized SiO2 nanogratings and Si3N4 thin films acting as an anti-reflection coating (ARC) layer with air medium (AM1.5) which showed significant current density of 16.25 mA/cm2 in ultra-thin a-Si solar cells. Finally, the light trapping mechanism evidenced the importance of nanostructures using transverse electric (TE) and magnetic (TM) field distributions by changing the various incident wavelength.