Aluminum nanoparticles for efficient light-trapping in plasmonic gallium arsenide solar cells

Author

Xiaofeng Li

Author_Institution

Key Lab. of Adv. Opt. Manuf. Technol. of Jiangsu Province & Key Lab. of Modern Opt. Technol. of Educ. Minist. of China, Soochow Univ., Suzhou, China

fYear

2012

fDate

7-10 Nov. 2012

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

3

Abstract

Plasmonic gallium arsenide (GaAs) solar cells with different metallic nanoparticles are investigated by a three-dimensional device simulation considering both optical and carrier transport response. The external quantum efficiency and metallic absorption are used for a detailed performance comparison for the devices with different metals. Results show that aluminum is beneficial for photovoltaic application due to its extremely low parasitic absorption and strong-enough scattering. The effect of the nanoparticle refractive index on the device performance is further examined in order to find the design guideline for efficient light-trapping. It is found that among the popular plasmonic metals aluminum best suits the optimal design.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; aluminium; gallium arsenide; nanoparticles; plasmonics; radiation pressure; refractive index; semiconductor device models; solar cells; 3D device simulation; Al; GaAs; aluminum nanoparticles; carrier transport response; design guideline; device performance; efficient light-trapping; external quantum efficiency; metallic absorption; metallic nanoparticles; nanoparticle refractive index effect; optical response; optimal design; parasitic absorption; photovoltaic application; plasmonic gallium arsenide solar cells; plasmonic metals;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Communications and Photonics Conference (ACP), 2012 Asia

Conference_Location

Guangzhou

ISSN

2162-108X

Print_ISBN

978-1-4673-6274-0

Type

conf

Filename

6510602