Spin Coated Plasmonic Nanoparticle Interfaces for Photocurrent Enhancement in Thin Film Si Solar Cells

TL;DR

This paper presents a scalable spin-coating method to create plasmonic silver nanoparticle interfaces that significantly enhance photocurrent in thin film silicon solar cells, achieving up to 200% improvement.

Contribution

Introduces a cost-effective, room-temperature spin-coating technique for fabricating broadband plasmonic interfaces with silver nanoparticles for solar cell enhancement.

Findings

Photocurrent enhancement up to 200% in silicon solar cells.

Optimal nanoparticle surface coverage at 7% for maximum efficiency.

Formation of particle strings and clusters affects spectral response.

Abstract

Nanoparticle (NP) arrays of noble metals strongly absorb light in the visible to infrared wavelengths through resonant interactions between the incident electromagnetic field and the metal's free electron plasma. Such plasmonic interfaces enhance light absorption and photocurrent in solar cells. We report a cost effective and scalable room temperature/pressure spin-coating route to fabricate broadband plasmonic interfaces consisting of silver NPs. The NP interface yields photocurrent enhancement (PE) in thin film silicon devices by up to 200% which is significantly greater than previously reported values. For coatings produced from Ag nanoink containing particles with average diameter of 40 nm, an optimal NP surface coverage of 7% was observed. Scanning electron microscopy of interface morphologies revealed that for low surface coverage, particles are well-separated, resulting in broadband PE. At higher surface coverage, formation of particle strings and clusters caused red-shifting of the PE peak and a narrower spectral response.