It was shown in many experiments that the incorporation of metallic nanostructures into photovoltaic devices results in the enhancement of solar cell efficiency. Most simulations of such devices are based on classical electrodynamics and neglect quantum effects arising from nanosized metallic structures.
We combine several semi-classical approaches towards microscopic electron dynamics [1-3] into a single feasible framework. The advantage lies in the straightforward integration of analytical expressions into standard computational procedures such as modified Mie coefficients and multiple scattering techniques for nanoparticle clusters or with commercial software such as COMSOL.
We investigate plasmon enhanced solar cells [1-3] including (i) Lorentz friction caused by the oscillation of electrons, (ii) spatial dispersion due to nonlocal electron-electron interactions, and (iii) the microscopic description of the strong interaction between plasmon excitations in metal nanoparticles and semiconductor states. The impact of the resulting corrections on the light absorption and photocurrent gain is studied and we estimate under which conditions those corrections are significant.
Details will be presented at the NUSOD-20 conference.
[1] K. Kluczyk, L. Jacak, W. Jacak, and C. David, Materials 11(7), 1077 (2018). [2] K. Kluczyk, C. David, J. Jacak, and W. Jacak, Nanomaterials 9(1), 3 (2019). [3] K. Kluczyk-Korch, L. Jacak, W. A. Jacak, and C. David, Nanomaterials 9(9), 1206 (2019).
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