Effect of varying the row and column size of periodic arrays of plasmonic nanoparticles on the energy conversion efficiency of thin-film solar cells

The use of plasmonic nanostructures in enhancing the energy conversion efficiency of solar cells has been of great interest in recent times. While much of this interest has resulted in research for analyzing the metals that are most suitable for the plasmonic nanostructures, little attention has been given to optimizing the physical parameters of the nanostructures. The nanostructures that are of particular interest to this study are periodic nanoparticle arrays placed over thin-film amorphous silicon substrate. The extent to which the periodicity of the nanoparticle array affects the energy conversion efficiency of the solar cell has not been analyzed extensively. To this end, this paper investigates the periodic nature of the plasmonic metal nanoparticle array, and the relationship of the periodicity of the plasmonic nanostructured arrays to the optical and electrical enhancement obtained from coupling the nanoparticle arrays to thin-film amorphous silicon solar cells. It was found that increasing the number of rows and columns of the plasmonic nanoparticles in the array increases the observed optical and electrical signal enhancements from the thin-film solar cell. Additionally, it was also found that the optical and electrical enhancement of the solar cell depended significantly on the orientation of the nanoparticle array with respect to the axis of the polarization of the incident radiation.