Tunable light absorption of Si nanowires by coating nonabsorbing dielectric shells for photovoltaic applications
WENFU LIU1,*
Affiliation
- Department of Electronic Science and Engineering, Huanghuai University, Zhumadian, Henan 463000, China
Abstract
We present a detailed analysis of the light absorption in the coaxial nanowire (NW) of Si core and nonabsorbing dielectric shell which has great potential in solar cells. We have calculated the absorption efficiency within the framework of the Lorenz-Mie light scattering theory to investigate the effects of the core radius, the shell thickness, and the shell refractive index on the light absorption. We have found that the photocurrent can be enhanced up to ~135% for the coaxial NW of the core radius of 150 nm by tuning the shell thickness and the shell refractive index, as compared to Si NW..
Keywords
Mie theory, Nanomaterials, Semiconductor materials, Absorption, Photovoltaic.
Citation
WENFU LIU, Tunable light absorption of Si nanowires by coating nonabsorbing dielectric shells for photovoltaic applications, Optoelectronics and Advanced Materials - Rapid Communications, 5, 9, September 2011, pp.916-919 (2011).
Submitted at: Sept. 24, 2011
Accepted at: Sept. 15, 2011