Performance Evaluation of Graphene-Based Hyperbolic Metamaterials for Enhanced Light Absorption in Planar Si Solar Cell

This article discusses the graphene-based hyperbolic metamaterial (HMM) used as the anti-reflection (AR) coating of planar Si solar cells. It theoretically and graphically represents the properties (conductivity, permittivity) of the proposed structure. A comprehensive analysis is conducted through meticulous research, exploring its performance across multiple modes, such as refractive, reflective, and absorbing modes. Notably, this investigation has placed particular emphasis on the absorbing mode of graphene, enabling us to accurately determine the absorbing power capacity. This significant finding opens up promising opportunities for the application of graphene in solar cells, thereby improving absorptance, generation rate, and short-circuit current density in the visible solar spectrum. The generation rate of planar Si solar cells is increased from
$2.1033 \times {10}^{27}{m}^{ - 3}{s}^{ - 1}$
to
$2.28093 \times {10}^{27}{m}^{ - 3}{s}^{ - 1}$
by using HMM in place of hBN. The current density is
$27.3\ mAc{m}^{ - 2}$
for using HMM as AR of planar Si solar cell, marking a remarkable 106% enhancement compared to the Planar structure and 3.8% compared to the hBN based solar cell.