Optical Performance Enhancement of GaAsBi/P3HT Hybrid Solar CellIncorporatingMetallic Nanoparticlesinthe Absorber Layer

GaA
s1-x
Bi
x
alloy semiconductors have been an attractive material for optoelectronic applications due to its bandgap tailoring property with variable mole fraction “x”. The optical properties of thin film GaAs0.99Bi
0.01
solar cell with a thin donor shell of P3HT and ITO on the top have been investigated. In order to boost the optical absorption, photo-generation rate in thin film HSC, plasmonic metal nanoparticles are incorporated in the donor shell. A 400nm thick layer of thin film absorbing material GaAs0.99Bi
0.01
, 100nm thick hole transport layer of P3HT and 100nm thick ITO layer as a top electrode, 100nm thick Al bottom electrode have been chosen for this simulation study. A comparative study of the optical properties of plasmonic MNP based HSC thin film solar cell is carried out with an array of three different materials of nanoparticles such as gold(Au), silver(Ag) and Aluminium (Al). A thorough geometry optimization study is done based on the diameter of MPNs as well as Filling Ratio (FR) of the unit cell. Photo generation rate profile upon illumination by incident solar spectrum, electric field profile at different wavelengths for different MNPs are studied and presented in this paper. The 400nm thick absorber layer produces a J
sc
of 31.8969 mA/cm
²
without the plasmonic effect whereas it produces Jsc values of 34.1957 mA/cm
²
, 32.0325 mA/cm
²
and 33.5517 mA/cm
²
for Au, Ag and Al MNP respectively with a FR of 0.5 of unit solar cell.