Plasmonic Scattering by Metal Nanoparticles for Solar Cells

We investigate absorption and scattering from metal nanoparticles in view of possible applications to photovoltaic cells. The analysis, accounting for most of the parameters involved in the physical mechanism of scattering, is split into two parts. In the first part, scattering from a metallic sphere is treated analytically to investigate the dependence on sphere size, sphere metal, and surrounding medium. In the second part, scattering from a metallic particle is investigated as a function of particle shape (spheroids, hemispheres and cylinders) via numerical simulations based on the Finite-Difference-Time-Domain (FDTD) method. Aim of the work is to provide a systematic study on scattering and absorption by metal nanoparticles, exploring several combinations of material and geometrical parameters to identify those combinations that could play a key role in solar cell efficiency improvement.