Abstract

A new efficient plasmonic structure for solar energy absorption is designed. Numerical simulations demonstrate the absorption enhancement in a symmetrical structure based on the mode coupling between the localized plasmonic mode in an Ag strip pair and the excited waveguide mode in a silicon slab. Then the method of symmetry breaking is used to excite the dark modes that can further enhance the absorption ability. The new structure is compared with a bare thin-film Si solar cell, and results show that the integrated light harvest efficiency is greatly improved for the TM polarization in such thin geometry.

© 2011 Optical Society of America

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