Finite difference discretization of semiconductor drift-diffusion equations for nanowire solar cells

We introduce a finite difference discretization of semiconductor drift-diffusion equations using cylindrical partial waves. It can be applied to describe the photo-generated current in radial pn-junction nanowire solar cells. We demonstrate that the cylindrically symmetric (l = 0) partial wave accurately describes the electronic response of a square lattice of silicon nanowires at normal incidence. We investigate the accuracy of our discretization scheme by using different mesh resolution along the radial direction r and compare with 3D (x, y, z) discretization. We consider both straight nanowires and nanowires with radius modulation along the vertical axis. The charge carrier generation profile inside each nanowire is calculated using an independent finite-difference time-domain simulation. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. The drift-diffusion model for photo-generated electrons and holes is widely used for semiconductor device and solar cell simulations. This model is defined by Poisson and continuity equations [1]: