Self-assembled Al nanoparticles on Si and fused silica, and their application for Si solar cells

Abstract

This paper presents a novel method for the self-assembly of aluminum nanoparticles on Si and fused silica. Due to high reactivity with oxygen, ex-vacuo annealing of thin deposited metal films, a method used extensively with other metals, does not work with aluminum. In the present experiment this problem was overcome by annealing the samples in-vacuo in the deposition chamber. Aluminum was thermally evaporated onto substrates at elevated temperatures (200-400 ° C) and annealed for 60 min without breaking the vacuum. It is shown that at 300 and 400 ° C the average particle size can be controlled by adjusting the amount of evaporated aluminum. Particle diameters ranging from 20 to 130 nm are demonstrated. These particles support localized surface plasmon resonances, a property that can be utilized for enhancing the efficiency of thin Si solar cells. This is explored here, and an increase in external quantum efficiency of up to 15% in a thin-film Si solar cell is demonstrated.

Effect of Systematic Control of Pd Thickness and Annealing Temperature on the Fabrication and Evolution of Palladium Nanostructures on Si (111) via the Solid State Dewetting

“…Metallic NPs can demonstrate increased light absorption and emission owing to the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) [1–3], and their optical properties can efficiently be tuned by the control of shape, size, and density of NPs [4–6]. Silicon is one of the most abundant semiconductor materials widely utilized for photovoltaic solar cells and photodetectors [7–10], and the performance of Si-based optoelectronic devices can be significantly improved by the integration of metallic NPs [11–16]. For instance, self-assembled aluminum (Al) NPs fabricated on Si can enhance the efficiency of solar cells owing to the LSPR exhibited by Al NPs [11].…”

“…Silicon is one of the most abundant semiconductor materials widely utilized for photovoltaic solar cells and photodetectors [7–10], and the performance of Si-based optoelectronic devices can be significantly improved by the integration of metallic NPs [11–16]. For instance, self-assembled aluminum (Al) NPs fabricated on Si can enhance the efficiency of solar cells owing to the LSPR exhibited by Al NPs [11]. Similarly, Si-based LEDs can produce a superior light emission via the excitation of surface plasmon resonance by silver (Ag) NPs [12].…”

Transparent aluminium nanowire electrodes with optical and electrical anisotropic response fabricated by defocused ion beam sputtering

“…Al nanostructures support localized plasmon resonances in the ultraviolet (UV) and visible region of the spectrum and they could be used as substrate for metal-enhanced fluorescence, UV-SERS, or for enhancing the efficiency of optoelectronic devices [30][31][32][33][34][35].…”

Plasmonic metal nanocubes for broadband light absorption enhancement in thin-film a-Si solar cells

“…This is why most works have previously focused on red-shifting the LSPRs into the near-IR region to increase light absorption in that region, as explained in the introduction. However, Villesen et al 27 showed experimentally that there is photocurrent enhancement only at frequencies lower than the the main LSPR frequency (i.e., longer wavelengths). Hence the bluer LSPR positions of the Al MNPs allow enhancement to occur over a larger portion of the solar spectrum as opposed to Ag MNPs.…”