Improved Efficiency of MoS2-Au Multilayer Plasmonic-Based Solar Cells: Far- and Near-Field Analysis

This work reports the efficient excitation of surface plasmons polaritons (SPPs) by optimizing the geometrical parameters of MoS2-Au to increase the efficiency of plasmonic-based photovoltaic cells. This technique is quite useful for near-field and far-field analysis which is direly needed to understand the associate phenomenon. The impact of Au nano-grating on light absorption by using the plasmonic effect of noble metals has been investigated. We proposed a simple geometry for enhancing the coupling efficiency between the multilayering of MoS2 and Au noble metal thin film by varying the slit widths (270-480) nm and material thickness (40-50) nm, while the periodicity was kept constant (720 nm) for unit cell. The efficient SPP excitation occurs at slit widths, near half, and few more than half of periodicity (360-420) nm. Resonance wavelength at different slit widths has also been observed. Efficient SPP excitation tends to increase the electric field around the slit, hence increasing the substrate ability to absorb light. For material thickness 40 nm and 50 nm, it has been observed that changing y-component of electric field (E-y) in solar cell is effective in achieving greater absorption. The geometry has been simulated by using COMSOL Multiphysics RF module. This study will have significant impact for enhancing the coupling efficiency of the incident light into SPPs which have potential application to enhance the efficiency of the plasmonic-based solar cell.

Automated summary

This work focuses on optimizing the geometrical parameters of MoS2-Au to efficiently excite surface plasmons polaritons and increase the efficiency of plasmonic-based photovoltaic cells. The impact of Au nano-grating on light absorption using the plasmonic effect of noble metals is investigated. A simple geometry is proposed to enhance the coupling efficiency between MoS2 and Au thin film by varying slit widths and material thickness while keeping the periodicity constant. Efficient SPP excitation occurs at specific slit widths and resonance wavelengths have been observed.