Analysis of the effect of size, material, position and period of metal nanowires on the performance of thin film solar cells

In this paper, the effects of size, material, position and period of metal nanowires on the performance of thin film solar cells have been analyzed. For this purpose, full-wave simulations of the solar cells with gold, silver and nickel nanowires with different radii, periods, and positions have been used. The simulation results show that the best performance of the thin film solar cell has been realized when the gold nanowires with a radius of 70 nm and the period of 425 nm have been positioned on the top surface of the active layer. The optimum values of the efficiency and short circuit current density have been calculated as 22.22% and 22 (mA/cm2), respectively.