Optics and Photonics Society of Iran

In this paper, inclined nanowire solar cells rather than vertical or horizontal nanowires have been proposed. The effect of the nanowire absorption on the solar cell absorption has been simulated based on finite element analysis. The absorption coefficient and the effect of the nanowire parameters on it has been calculated. The optical absorptions for three nanowire arrays with circular, square and triangular cross sections have been compared and discussed. The effect of the nanowire array inclination angle on the light absorption for different nanowire cross sections has been studied. The electric field for different cases has been calculated and plotted. The results show that the inclined nanowires with square cross section, compared to the nanowires with circular or triangular cross sections have larger optical absorption in a wider frequency range. The results also show that the solar cells with the inclined nanowire arrays with square cross section have the maximum absorption of 0.9988 in 642 THz frequency at the 40 degree angle.