Designing optical path length, photonic, and plasmonic effects into nanostructured solar cells

The numerical modeling presented here shows the carrier collection and light management potential of nano-scale structure designs in solar cells. This design evaluation procedure includes scattering phenomena arising from photonic (periodic structure) and plasmonic effects and also the effective absorber length impact arising from morphology. This design work points to short circuit current densities of over 17mA/cm
²
being attainable under AM1.5G from an a-Si:H absorber nominal thickness of 200nm.