Enhancing photon absorptance in ultrathin solar/thermophotovoltaic (STPV) cells is crucial for low-cost highly-efficient cells. A complete study of power-conversion enhancement, in a proposed ultrathin STPV cell, is presented here. It involves lead sulfide colloidal quantum dots (PbS-CQDs), a silver (Ag)-nano-pyramid design, aluminum nitride (AlN) crossed prisms as front texturization, with embedded Ag nanospheres, and a tantalum (Ta) film as a back reflector. By combining the three mechanisms of surface plasmon polariton (SPP), localized plasmons (LSPR), and magnetic polariton (MP) in the same structure, photon absorptance in the active PbS-CQDs layer is greatly improved. The suggested structure attained a highly active absorptance of over 80%, covering visible and near-infrared (0.30 - 1.77 μm). The short circuit current density is also evaluated under AM 1.5 solar illumination and various blackbody temperatures (T_B), with values of 48.90 mA cm^-2 and 6.93 mA cm^-2, respectively, corresponding to unprecedented power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of 20.20% and 15.58%. Effects of metamaterial light management on PCE enhancement are discussed. Collectively, the findings show that the proposed hybrid cell is potentially useful in high performance hybrid thermal and solar cells.

Title

Plasmonics

Publisher

Springer

Publisher Country

United States of America

Indexing

Thomson Reuters

Impact Factor

3.3

Publication Type

Both (Printed and Online)

Volume

--

Year

2024

Pages

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