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We theoretically investigate the effects of the surrounding media and sizes on the optical absorbance of a periodic square array of GaAs nanowires (NWs) as a candidate of photovoltaic solar cells. The filling media considered are: PMMA, Polycarbonate, Polystyrene and PVP, commonly used in the science and technology of semiconductors. The sizes considered are the NWs length and radius and the pitch array. The simulated system consists of a top layer of ITO, the active layer of GaAs NWs surrounded by an embedding medium and a substrate layer of Si. The system absorbance is modelled though the transfer matrix method; while the GaAs NWs with the embedding medium is considered as an effective medium modelled by Maxwell-Garnett theory. For s- and p-polarization, we find that the embedding medium effects on the absorbance spectra are scarcely perceptible compared with the size effects. Indeed, for longer and wider NWs and smaller pitches array, the absorbance values are greater around 600-1100 nm. These results are in good agreement with those reported in the literature by experiments and other sophisticated simulations in III-V semiconductor NWs.
Keywords: Absorption spectra, GaAs NWs array, Solar cells, Transfer matrix method, Maxwell-Garnett theory© This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.