Broadband light-concentration with near-surface distribution by silver capped silicon nanowire for high-performance solar cells

Silver capped silicon nanowire presents two outstanding optical features. The first one is broadband light-concentration ability in waveband 300-620 nm, which makes the ideal photocurrent density of solar cell using this structure show 16% higher than that using pure silicon nanowire. The second feature is that the concentrated light shows strong near-surface distribution, which provides reasonable optical explanation for the superiority of radial over axial junction solar cells. This structure has potential applications for high-performance solar cells, as well as other optical devices.191