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Title: Cascading metallic gratings for broadband absorption enhancement in ultrathin plasmonic solar cells

Journal Article · · Applied Physics Letters
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4871584· OSTI ID:22262585
;  [1];  [1]
  1. Key Laboratory of Nanodevices and Applications-CAS and Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Suzhou 215123 (China)

The incorporation of plasmonic nanostructures in the thin-film solar cells (TFSCs) is a promising route to harvest light into the nanoscale active layer. However, the light trapping scheme based on the plasmonic effects intrinsically presents narrow-band resonant enhancement of light absorption. Here we demonstrate that by cascading metal nanogratings with different sizes atop the TFSCs, broadband absorption enhancement can be realized by simultaneously exciting multiple localized surface plasmon resonances and inducing strong coupling between the plasmonic modes and photonic modes. As a proof of concept, we demonstrate of 66.5% in the photocurrent in an ultrathin amorphous silicon TFSC with two-dimensional cascaded gratings over the reference cell without gratings.

OSTI ID:
22262585
Journal Information:
Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 104, Issue 15; Other Information: (c) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-6951
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English