Light absorption and short-circuit current density in plasmonic organic solar cells containing liquid crystal and metal nanowires

Subject Areas : Journal of Optoelectronical Nanostructures

Mohammad Javad Karimi ¹ , Milad Soleimiani ² , Hamed Rahimi ³

1 - Department of Physics, Shiraz University of Technology, Shiraz, Iran
2 - Department of Physics, Shiraz University of Technology, Shiraz, Iran
3 - Department of Physics, Yazd University, Yazd, Iran.

Received: 2024-07-12 Published : 2024-12-01

Keywords: Solar cell, Plasmonic, Organic Material, Absorption,

Abstract :

In this work, a plasmonic organic solar cell consisting of the organic material P3HT:PCBM, PEDOT:PSS, nematic liquid crystal 5CB, ITO, and metal nanowires was simulated in the wavelength range of 300 to 1200 nm. The substrate and nanowires are made of chrome, copper, and aluminum metals. The refractive indices of the metals were determined from the Drude–Lorentz equation. Optical absorption is obtained by solving Maxwell's equations using the finite element method. The values of the geometrical parameters corresponding to the high absorption were calculated. The impact of the layer thicknesses and incident light angle on the short-circuit current density is investigated. The results indicate that the nanowires significantly increase the absorption of the solar cell. The results show that the system made of chrome material has a broadband absorption rate of over 90%. Among all the proposed structures, the chrome-based solar cell has a maximum short-circuit current density of approximately 25 mA⁄cm2.