Strategies for designing high efficient thin-film amorphous silicon solar cells

One method to increase light absorption inside thin-film amorphous silicon solar cells is enhancing localized fields within its depletion region. This phenomenon can occur when metallic nanoparticles (MNPs) are placed inside a structure to increase light scattering. To obtain high efficiency, however, it´s crucial that most of this absorbed energy is converted to photocurrent. This paper explores the effect of embedded MNPs´ size and location has for optimization purposes. Over 30% solar cell efficiency improvement can be achieved through geometry optimization; far beyond state-of-the-art for thin-film amorphous silicon solar cells.