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It is believed that the effectual scattering by earth-abundant Al nanoparticles in combination with photoelectric conversion-efficient GaAs material may help for cost-effective solar cells. Al nanoparticles of various radii embedded at different depths in a Ta2O5-coated GaAs semiconductor have been studied by finite-difference time-domain method for their influence towards spectral absorption rate and photocurrent in GaAs solar cells. The calculated spectral absorption rate and photocurrent show a significant enhancement at the optimal depth for a particular radius of Al nanoparticles, which is explained on the basis of surface plasmon resonance. Al nanoparticles of radius 80 nm embedded just below the antireflection layer of Ta2O5 result a maximum spectral absorption rate of 0.95 that leads to a photocurrent of 30.43 mA/cm2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have simulated the extinction spectra of Au triangular nanoprisms and nanoboxes by finite difference time domain method. It is found that the refractive index sensitivity increases linearly and near exponentially as the aspect ratio of nanoprisms increases and wall thickness of nanoboxes decreases, respectively. A sensing figure of merit (FOM) calculation shows that there is an optimum wall thickness for each edge length and height of the box, which makes them to be promising candidates for effective sensing applications. We have also shown that the higher FOM in triangular nanoboxes compared to the cubic nanoboxes and other solid structure is inherent in the shape of nanoparticles. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]