Enhanced Light Trapping From Nano Particle Arrays

Sukanya R., T. Sivakumar

The metal nanoparticles pocesses unique properties of light interaction .Here we focuses on incoperating these nanoparticles in thin film structers to determine their effect on light scattering and capturing in thinfilm devices. These particles can exhibit large optical field enhancements, resulting in large enhancements in the absorption or scattering of the incoming light. The interaction of light with a metal nanoparticle causes the conducting electrons in the metal to oscillate; the collective oscillation of these electrons is defined as a plasmon and results in large optical field enhancements. This phenomenon can result in either the conversion of the energy of the incident light into thermal energy via absorption or the acceleration of these electrons and subsequent radiation as scattering. Thinfilm solar cells can potentially benefit greatly from increased near-field enhancement associated with metal nanoparticles, and increased scattering can result in a greatly enhanced path length through the thin film by laterally redirecting incident light and increasing the fraction of light trapped in the film by total internal reflection.