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Localized surface plasmons (LSPs) are a potentially valuable property for the practical use of small size metallic particles. Exploiting the LSPs in metallic nanoparticle (NP)-based solar cells was shown to increase the efficiency of solar panels. A large extinction cross section of NPs allows for high scattering of light at the surface of the panel, which reduces the panel thickness, allowing for small size and low-cost solar cells. In this paper, the extinction cross-section of spherical nanoparticles is studied and simulated numerically. Surface plasmons were first modeled using the Drude’s model then the scattering and absorption cross-sections were derived. Commercial3D simulation software was used to model the near field distribution of the three NP structures. A spherical nanoparticle made of silver was modeled first and the field distribution inside the sphere was presented. The extinction cross-section was also calculated. Two other structures were also presented; a silica NP was first coated with silver shell then a silver NP was coated with silica shell. These structures were studied to estimate the effects of the surroundings on the extinction cross-section. The results show that the silica NP coated with a silver shell provides a high extinction cross-section and can be considered as a good choice for the LSPs-based solar cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel asymmetric channel plasmon polaritons (CPPs) is proposed and analyzed. In this paper, the dispersion characteristics of asymmetric two and three-trenched CPPs structures are studied in detail. The suggested asymmetric structures have advantages in terms of propagation length and figure of merit over the symmetric CPP waveguides. In addition, a comparative study of various CPP metals including gold and silver is also presented. It is found that the propagation length and figure of merit of the silver-based structures are better than those of gold-based structures. In addition, the effect of bending on the asymmetric CPP waveguides is investigated. The simulation results are obtained by full-vectorial finite difference method with irregular meshing capabilities and perfectly matched layer boundary conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]