Optical Absorption Characteristics of Silicon Nanowires for Photovoltaic Applications

Solar cells have generated a lot of interest as a potential source of clean renewable energy for the future. However, a big bottleneck in wide scale deployment of these energy sources remain in the low efficiency of these conversion devices. Recently, the use of nanostructures and the strategy of quantum confinement has become a general approach towards better charge carrier generation and capture. In this article, we have presented calculations on the optical characteristics of nanowires made out of silicon. Our calculations show these nanowires form excellent optoelectronic materials and may yield efficient photovoltaic devices.