Research Projects

The domestic solar-energy industry has experienced rapid growth, but fundamental technical breakthroughs are needed to reduce solar electricity costs and compete with fossil fuel technologies. This project proposes developing plasmonic absorbers by adding controlled absorption bands in transparent semiconducting thin films. Conducting metallic nanoparticles (NPs) will be coated with thin enough dielectric oxides embedded in transparent metallic thin films, allowing optical homogeneity and retained specular reflectance. The optical response can be manipulated by the NPs and more efficiently by the ratio of oxide thickness to core particle radius. Different oxide materials will be used to study interface effects on optical responses. The structures will act as plasmonic black bodies, allowing for strong light absorption and tuning the plasmonic properties by varying the oxide to metal NP thickness ratio. The researchers will study the effect of integrating plasmonic absorbers on the photovoltaic properties of thin film solar cells in various configurations, including glass or flexible substrate/n-Si layer/i-Si layer/p-Si layer. Optimizing efficiency involves placing the plasmonic absorbers in the appropriate position and optimizing the solar cell structure with transparent electrodes on both sides. This project creates a complete chain of knowledge from structure manipulation, modelling, fabrication, and characterization, with the goal of improving the efficiency of current a-Si thin film-based solar cells and exploring their potential applications in future mobile and flexible electronic devices.