Radiative property investigation of metal nanoparticles embedded in absorption layer for thin-film solar cell with the consideration of medium absorption and dependent scattering

Spectral radiative transfer between particles of dispersed particulate medium occurs widely in many fields, which may be affected by host medium absorption (HMA) and dependent scattering effect (DSE) between particles. However, few studies on the radiative properties of dispersed particulate medium have considered both the effects of medium absorption and dependent scattering, which can result in significant errors. Meanwhile, metal nanoparticles (NPs) are used generally in absorption layer of thin-film solar cells due to their localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) effect. The absorption layer embedded with metal NPs could be seen as the special dispersed particulate medium. To calculate the radiative properties of metal NPs embedded in absorption layer for thin-film solar cell accurately, the idea of combining the LSPR of metal NPs, DSE between particles, and HMA is proposed by the authors. Multiple sphere T-matrix (MSTM) method and generalized Mie scattering theory are used to calculate the radiative properties of metal NPs embedded in absorption layer for thin-film solar cell with the consideration of HMA and DSE. Compared to the conventional method without the consideration of HMA and DSE, the method can decrease the maximum relative error and average error between experimental data and calculation data from 62.75% to 8.09%, and from 14.22% to 3.72%, respectively.