UV and IR cut-off filters based on plasmonic crossed-shaped nano-antennas for solar cell applications

Abstract

Abstract A periodic array of plasmonic cross-shaped nano-antennas as ultraviolet (UV) and infrared (IR) radiations protection in solar cell systems has been designed. Since UV and IR radiations may degrade the efficiency and overall lifetime of solar cell, plasmonic band-stop filters have been proposed. We show that the presented filters are polarization-independent which make them suitable for photovoltaic utilization and their optical properties can be tuned by varying the size and periodicity of the antennas. The transmission, reflection and absorption of the filters with rigid and flexible substrates for using in silicon and organic solar cells have been studied. To characterize the performance of the filters, two parameters have been defined and calculated. According to the defined parameters, proposed nano-antennas on rigid substrate can block 79.6% and 65.2% of the undesired sun’s UV and IR radiations, respectively. Additionally, about 70.8% and 56.2% of the UV and IR spectra are filtered by the proposed nano structures on flexible substrate. Due to removal of heat and UV light, the proposed filters can improve the power efficiency of both silicon and organic solar cells in long term applications and also enhance their lifetime.