Plasmon-Enhanced Light Absorption in (p-i-n) Junction GaAs Nanowire Solar Cells: An FDTD Simulation Method Study

A finite-difference time-domain method is developed for studying the plasmon enhancement of light absorption from vertically aligned GaAs nanowire arrays decorated with Au nanoparticles. Vertically aligned GaAs nanowires with a length of 1 µm, a diameter of 100 nm and a periodicity of 165–500 nm are functionalized with Au nanoparticles with a diameter between 30 and 60 nm decorated in the sidewall of the nanowires. The results show that the metal nanoparticles can improve the absorption efficiency through their plasmonic resonances, most significantly within the near-bandgap edge of GaAs. By optimizing the nanoparticle parameters, an absorption enhancement of almost 35% at 800 nm wavelength is achieved. The latter increases the chance of generating more electron–hole pairs, which leads to an increase in the overall efficiency of the solar cell. The proposed structure emerges as a promising material combination for high-efficiency solar cells. [Figure not available: see fulltext.]