Revisited design optimization of metallic gratings for plasmonic light-trapping enhancement in thin organic solar cells

We revisit previous studies of metallic gratings for optical absorption enhancement in an organic solar cell with a thin active layer. Our device geometry is designed for a real solar cell with full of functional layers. Various metallic gratings calibrated to generate periodic scatterers and low reflectors for broad-band light account for increases in short circuit current density of up to 47% when compared to its flat counterpart. We found that the tapered grating has greater performance than the regular rectangular grating for transverse magnetic (TM) polarization while the latter shows better performance for transverse electric (TE) polarization. The overall metallic grating induced absorption enhancement was found at all angles of incidence. The best configuration was realized for the tapered grating-based solar cell at 25 of inclination. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.