Surface plasmon polariton enhanced ultrathin nano-structured CdTe solar cell

Journal Article · Thu Aug 21 04:00:00 EDT 2014 · Optics Express

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.22.0A1372· OSTI ID:1426875

Luk, Ting S. ^[1]; Fofang, Nche T. ^[1]; Cruz-Campa, Jose L. ^[2]; Frank, Ian ^[1]; Campione, Salvatore ^[1]

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1. Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States). Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies
2. Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

Here, we demonstrate numerically that two-dimensional arrays of ultrathin CdTe nano-cylinders on Ag can serve as an effective broadband anti-reflection structure for solar cell applications. Such devices exhibit strong absorption properties, mainly in the CdTe semiconductor regions, and can produce short-circuit current densities of 23.4 mA/cm², a remarkable number in the context of solar cells given the ultrathin dimensions of our nano-cylinders. The strong absorption is enabled via excitation of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) under plane wave incidence. In particular, we identified the key absorption mechanism as enhanced fields of the SPP standing waves residing at the interface of CdTe nano-cylinders and Ag. We compare the performance of Ag, Au, and Al substrates, and observe significant improvement when using Ag, highlighting the importance of using low-loss metals. Although we use CdTe here, the proposed approach is applicable to other solar cell materials with similar absorption properties.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22). Scientific User Facilities Division
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-94AL85000
• OSTI ID: 1426875
• Report Number(s): SAND--2014-17872J; 537633
• Journal Information: Optics Express, Journal Name: Optics Express Journal Issue: S5 Vol. 22; ISSN 1094-4087; ISSN OPEXFF
• Publisher: Optical Society of America (OSA)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY