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.