Abstract
In spite of many advantages, the practical application of the thin film solar cell is restricted due to its low efficiency compared with the bulk type solar cells. This study intends to adopt the surface plasmon effect using nano particles to solve the low efficiency problem in thin film solar cells. By inserting Ag nano-particles in the absorbing layer of a thin film solar cell, the poynting vector value of the absorbing layer is increased due to the strong energy field. Increasing the value may give thin film solar cells chance to absorb more energy from the incident beam so that the efficiency of the thin film solar cell can be improved. In this work, we have designed the optimal shape of Ag nano-particle in the absorbing laser of a basic type thin film solar cell using the finite element analysis commercial package COMSOL. Design parameters are set to the particle diameter and the distance between each Ag nano-particle and by changing those parameters using the full factorial design variable set-up, we can determine optimal design of Ag nano-particles for maximizing the poynting vector value in the absorbing layer.
