Light Trapping by Incorporating Titanium Nitride Plasmonic Nanospheres in Photovoltaic Cell

Incorporating plasmonic nanosphere in thin-film solar cells is a creative approach to achieving efficient optical absorption as they are effective in light absorption and scatterings. Here, we proposed a 2D array of nanospheres on the silicon for light trapping by utilizing localized surface plasmons. Scattering cross-sections based on dipole oscillations were calculated. Among the plasmonic nanospheres, TiN exhibited promising excitation and nonresistant properties, proving an efficient contender for alternative plasmonic material. For 15 nm TiN nanospheres, the absorption was greater than 1 for the whole wavelength range. An enhancement factor of 1.2 for silicon was achieved in our simulations for 100 nm TiN nanospheres at 1000 nm wavelength. The power absorption increased from ~ 19% for Si thin film to ~45% after adding TiN nanospheres and further increased to ~53% for core-shell TiN nanospheres with 20 nm Si
3
N
4
coating on Si. The total cross-section became 17 W/m
²
after adding the nanosphere. The proposed nanosystem showed promising results and can enhance efficiency in photovoltaic cells.