Rotational freedom thin‐film solar cell using a reconfigurable nano‐antenna with 4‐Dimethyl‐Amino‐N‐methyl‐4‐Stilbazolium Tosylate

Abstract

Abstract In this paper, we proposed a new method to realize the rotational freedom of thin‐film solar cells. In this method, an array of reconfigurable nano‐patches fed by a plasmonic waveguide is integrated inside the solar cell to receive and trap light in the active layer. The reconfigurable nano‐antenna is designed to achieve beam steering by bias voltage in the direction of sunlight during the day using 4‐Dimethyl‐Amino‐N‐methyl‐4‐Stilbazolium Tosylate as an active electro‐optic material integrated into the plasmonic waveguide. The proposed solar cell is investigated using the finite‐difference frequency‐domain method and the drift‐diffusion equations of COMSOL Multiphysics software at different wavelengths of light and a wide range of angles of incidence for transverse magnetic (TM) and transverse electric (TE) polarizations. The numerical results show increase in the absorption in large wavelengths of sunlight for the thin‐film solar cell with nano‐antenna, resulting in a short circuit current enhancement of 1.48 and 1.45 for TE and TM polarisations, respectively. Also, another advantage of the proposed reconfigurable structure is maintaining the performance in different angles of incidence, which may open up a new opportunity in solar energy harvesting.

Keywords

• metamaterial antennas
• plasmonics
• solar cells