Light trapping in a-Si:H thin film solar cells using silver nanostructures

Abstract

Plasmonic thin film solar cells (modified with metallic nanostructures) often display enhanced light absorption due to surface plasmon resonance (SPR). However, the plasmonic field localization may not be significantly beneficial to improved photocurrent conversion efficiency for all types of cell configurations. For instance, the integration of random metallic nanoparticles (NPs) into thin film solar cells often introduces additional texturing. This texturing might also contribute to enhanced photon-current efficiency. An experimental systematic investigation to decouple both the plasmonic and the texturing contributions is hard to realize for cells modified with randomly deposited metallic nanoparticles. This work presents an experimental and computational investigation of well-defined plasmonic (Ag) nanoparticles, fabricated by nanosphere lithography, integrated to the back contact of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) solar cells. The size, shape, periodicity and the vertical position of the Ag nanoparticles were well-controlled. The experimental results suggested that a-Si:H solar cells modified with a periodic arrangement of Ag NPs (700 nm periodicity) fabricated just at the top of the metal contact in the back reflector yields the highest improvement in terms of current density (JSC). Finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations also indicated that Ag nanoparticles located at the top of the metal contact in the back reflector is expected to lead to the most efficient light confinement inside the a-Si:H absorber intrinsic layer (i-layer).

Broadband Solar Energy Absorption in Plasmonic Thin-Film Amorphous Silicon Solar Cell

“…Rufangura et al suggested an optical structure for solar cells, where they used gold and GaAs patches on the top surface and obtained dual narrow absorption modes with 99% absorption level [12]. Wang et al designed an optical structure for a-Si:H thin-film solar cells, where an array of silver nanoparticles at the bottom surface is used and approximately 60% light absorption efficiency is achieved with a spectral width of 200 nm [13]. Lou et al proposed a new light trapping structure by using gold nanoparticles at the back surface and attained 60% optical absorption efficiency with a bandwidth of 250 nm [14].…”

Study of Functional Coatings of Polyvinyl Butyral With Silver Nanoparticles for Photovoltaic Converters

“…Более перспективным может быть применение многофункциональных покрытий, которые одновременно сочетали бы в себе свойства антиотражающих покрытий и позволяли расширить спектральную чувствительность и повысить квантовый выход ФЭП [6]. Такие функциональные покрытия могут быть созданы на основе полимерных пленок с наночастицами серебра [7,8]. Внедрение в пленки наночастиц серебра позволяет изменять их коэффициент преломления и таким образом использовать их в качестве просветляющих покрытий ФЭП.…”

“…Значение внешнего квантового выхода кремниевых солнечных элементов с функциональными покрытиями поливинилбутираля с наночастицами серебра зависит от размеров наночастиц и их концентрации в покрытии. При концентрации наночастиц серебра в пленкообразующем растворе 7…”

Numerical analysis of aluminum nanoparticle influence on the characteristics of a thin-film solar cell

“…Most researchers use gold or silver as a material for nanoparticles [6][7][8][9][10]. However, the utilization of noble metals significantly increases the cost of solar modules.…”