LAUSR

Enhancement of the optical absorption in ultra-thin silicon solar cells is more important. In this work, plasmonic nanostructures are used inside the active layer to improve the absorption and hence photocurrent of a thin silicon solar cell. The main objective is to design a high efficiency solar cell using embedded two or three coupled nanoparticles. Finite difference time domain (FDTD) method is used to simulate the proposed structures. Some optimization like position, distance, and radiuses of nanoparticles is done. The effects of embedded coupled nanoparticles are compared with a case of one embedded nanoparticle. The obtained results indicated that coupled nanoparticles significantly improve the cell performance. For instance, the optical current for a cell with two coupled nanoparticles is 33.53 mA/cm2 and that is 34.49 mA/cm2 for a cell with three embedded coupled nanoparticles. It is important to mention that the optical currents are 31.74 mA/cm2 and 20.11 mA/cm2 for the cells with one nanoparticle and without nanoparticles, respectively. Finally, to further enhancement, a titanium oxide core with different radiuses inside silver nanoparticles is considered. Titanium oxide cores reduce the absorption inside the metal and hence increase the optical absorption and photocurrent.