Solar cell enhancement using metallic nanoparticles embedded in titanium dioxide

Abstract

In this work we model the effects of depositing gold nanospheres of varying radii and spatial separations onto a 500nm film of silicon in an effort to couple more light into silicon through the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) of the nanoparticles. To further enhance the field at the interface, we study the effect of embedding the spheres within the dielectrics air, NBK7, and titanium dioxide (TiO2). The modeling is done through finite element analysis via COMSOL over the radiation spectrum (0.4μm 1.5μm) of the sun. A positive size dependency of the light coupled into silicon and the radii of the spheres is found and analyzed. Use of dielectrics greater than air, NBK7 and TiO2, results in greater field enhancement at the silicon interface.