Nanostructures for Enhancing the Performance of Thin Film Solar Cells

Thin-film solar cell provides a better way to make solar energy economically viable by reducing the usage of costly active materials. However, thin-film photovoltaic devices can have limited performance due to low absorption coefficient and/or insufficient absorbing material thickness. Thus, removing this bottleneck of low absorption of light resulting in lower solar to electrical conversion efficiency is of utmost importance in achieving a viable solar conversion source for practical usage. One way of addressing this issue is to adopt light-trapping schemes. The mechanism of light trapping is based on utilizing geometric features to reduce back reflection, increase the optical path inside, and modify the optical response of the active medium. Researchers have demonstrated improvement in thin-film solar cell performance by utilizing nanostructures made of dielectrics (e.g., SiO2, TiO2) and plasmonic metals (Au, Ag, Cu, Al). In our proposed design we incorporated plasmonic nanostructures and an enhancement of 38% in amorphous-Silicon, 29% in P3HT: PCBM, and 47% in perovskite-based solar cells achieved.