High-Performance Laterally Oriented Nanowire Solar Cells with Ag Gratings

Abstract

A laterally oriented GaAs p-i-n nanowire solar cell with Ag gratings is proposed and studied via coupled three-dimensional optoelectronic simulations. The results show that the gratings significantly enhance the absorption of nanowire for both TM and TE polarized light due to the combined effect of grating diffraction, excitation of plasmon polaritons, and suppression of carrier recombination. At an optimal grating period, the absorption at 650–800 nm, which is an absorption trough for pure nanowire, is substantially enhanced, raising the conversion efficiency from 8.7% to 14.7%. Moreover, the gratings enhance the weak absorption at long wavelengths and extend the absorption cutoff wavelength for ultrathin nanowires, yielding a remarkable efficiency of 13.3% for the NW with a small diameter of 90 nm, 2.6 times that without gratings. This work may pave the way toward the development of ultrathin high-efficiency nanoscale solar cells.

Plasmon-enhanced deep-subwavelength lateral nanowire solar cells

“…This is because metal nanoblocks can concentrate light around the NWs due to the excitation of collective electron oscillations known as the LSPR, which remarkably enhances the long-wavelength mode con nement for deep-subwavelength NWs (Tang et al 2018). In addition, the arrangement of Au nanoblocks forms the gratings with a period of 350 nm, and the diffraction effect of the gratings also enhances the absorption of the NWs for TE polarization light (Zhang et al 2021).…”

Surface-modified nanotherapeutics targeting atherosclerosis

“…Nanotechnology has brought major advances in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases, and the attractiveness of these nanoparticles for medical purposes is based on their important and unique properties, such as their large surface-to-mass ratio, their quantum properties, and their ability to adsorb and carry substances such as drugs, probes, nucleic acids (e.g., mRNA, siRNA) and proteins. Nanoparticles can be composed of organic materials such as lipids, [27][28][29] polymers, [30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39] metallic or inorganic materials such as iron oxides, 40,41 gold 42 and silicon, 43 or a combination of these materials. The fabrication of nanoparticles can be precisely controlled, which allows them to vary in size, and to control their shape, surface charge, stability, and various other properties, ultimately affecting their in vivo behavior.…”