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An Optimal Au Grating Structure for Light Absorption in Amorphous Silicon Thin Film Solar Cell

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Abstract

Effect of different gold (Au) grating structures on light absorption in solar cell is investigated by finite elemental analysis using COMSOL multiphysics-RF module. The geometry of the solar cell consists of a 50-nm Au film on the substrate of amorphous silicon (a-Si). An optimum value of the slit width (w) of the Au grating has been obtained whereas periodicity of the grating structure remained the same. The periodicity in the grating device was chosen in such a way that the excitation of the surface plasmon polritons (SPPs) lies in the IR or NIR region where most of the spectrometers work well in practical life. Far-field transmission spectra were extracted from the grating device when illuminating with p-polarized light through the substrate side. Near-field plots of the Fano resonance (dip) associated with the excitation of the surface plasmon polritons (SPPs) were carefully examined to understand the underlying physics. It was deduced from the results that a grating device with slit width of 250–350 nm is the most efficient which reveals the fact that such device offers intermediate scattering from the grating structure and supports fundamental plasmonic mode. Hence, such devices absorb more light being most efficiently and find application in solar cell.

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Author notes

  1. Tahir Iqbal and Mohsin Ijaz contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Gujrat, Hafiz Hayat Campus, Gujrat, 50700, Pakistan

    Tahir Iqbal, Mohsin Ijaz, Muhammad Javaid, Muhammad Rafique, Khalid Nadeem Riaz, Muhammad Bilal Tahir & Ghulam Nabi

  2. Department of Physics, University of Hazara, Manshera, KPK, Pakistan

    Muhammad Abrar

  3. Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, University of Gujrat, Hafiz Hayat Campus, Gujrat, 50700, Pakistan

    Sumera Afsheen

Authors
  1. Tahir Iqbal
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  2. Mohsin Ijaz
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  3. Muhammad Javaid
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  4. Muhammad Rafique
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  5. Khalid Nadeem Riaz
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  6. Muhammad Bilal Tahir
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  7. Ghulam Nabi
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  8. Muhammad Abrar
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  9. Sumera Afsheen
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Correspondence to Tahir Iqbal or Mohsin Ijaz.

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Iqbal, T., Ijaz, M., Javaid, M. et al. An Optimal Au Grating Structure for Light Absorption in Amorphous Silicon Thin Film Solar Cell. Plasmonics 14, 147–154 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11468-018-0787-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11468-018-0787-2

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