Deep Investigation of Absorption Enhancement Through Embedded Plasmonic Nanostructure into Photovoltaics Cells

In this paper, a 3D FDTD numerical investigation was performed for the optical performance of a Si PV cell with the reconstruction of metal nanopillars. The absorption enhancement parameters (factor G and spectrum g(λ)) of the Si PV plasmonic solar cell were explored under standard AM1.5 light irradiation with the wavelength range from 400 to 1100 nm, adjusting the location and size of the nanopillars. The proposed embedded nanopillars provide a significant improvement in G value by up to 40% and 70% with optimized nanopillar design parameters (side length and height) of silver and gold metal, respectively. The nanopillars embedded from the top of the Si PV cell produce a significant absorption enhancement at the broadband wavelength above 700 nm, compared to the nanopillar arranged on the upper side of the cell. Moreover, the resultant short-circuit current confirms the effectiveness of the embedded nanopillar on the performance of the Si PV cells. The J_sc increases from 211 to 221.287 mA/cm² and 223.674 mA/cm² with 4.9% and 6% increases, respectively, for Ag and Au nanopillars with optimized design parameters. This theoretical study provides a potential model with feasible solutions to fabricate plasmonic Si PV cells with high absorption and efficiency improvement.