Improvement efficiency of solar cell by using photonic quasi-crystal layers and aluminum nanoparticles

Thin film solar cells have the benefits of low fabrication cost light–weight. However, an effective light trapping mechanism is necessary due to their low absorption in the wavelengths of the solar spectrum. In this paper, we present a novel approach based on nanograting elements and Bragg reflectors (DBRs) layers to trap significantly the light in a thin film silicon solar cell. The characterized of our proposed devices is obtained by use of Rigorous Coupled Wave Analysis (RCWA). Numerical results shown that the efficiency of the solar cell could be significantly increase by selecting optimum values of the anti–reflection layer thickness, grating types and period size. Two structure is proposed, one is includes square and triangular grating elements and second structure is contain of circular grating elements. Simulation results indicate that the cell efficiency of the second design could reach to 12.6%.