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Title

Simultaneous broadband light trapping and fill factor enhancement in crystalline silicon solar cells induced by Ag nanoparticles and nanoshells

Author(s)

Fahim, Narges F.;  Jia, Baohua;  Shi, Zhengrong;  Gu, Min

Abstract

Crystalline silicon solar cells are predominant and occupying more than 89% of the global solar photovoltaic market. Despite the boom of the innovative solar technologies, few can provide a low-cost radical solution to dramatically boost the efficiency of crystalline silicon solar cells, which has reached plateau in the past ten years. Here, we present a novel strategy to simultaneously achieve dramatic enhancement in the short-circuit current and the fill factor through the integration of Ag plasmonic nanoparticles and nanoshells on the antireflection coating and the screen-printed fingers of monocrystalline silicon solar cells, respectively, by a single step and scalable modified electroless displacement method. As a consequence, up to 35.2% enhancement in the energy conversion efficiency has been achieved due to the plasmonic broadband light trapping and the significant reduction in the series resistance. More importantly, this method can further increase the efficiency of the best performing textured solar cells from 18.3% to 19.2%, producing the highest efficiency cells exceeding the state-of-the-art efficiency of the standard screen-printed solar cells. The dual functions of the Ag nanostructures, reported for the first time here, present a clear contrast to the previous works, where plasmonic nanostructures were integrated into solar cells to achieve the short-circuit current enhancement predominately. Our method offers a facile, cost-effective and scalable pathway for metallic nanostructures to be used to dramatically boost the overall efficiency of the optically thick crystalline silicon solar cells.

Publication type

Journal article

Research centre

Swinburne University of Technology. Faculty of Engineering and Industrial Sciences. Centre for Micro-Photonics

Source

Optics Express, Vol. 20, supplement 5 (Sep 2012), pp. A694-A705

Publication year

2012

FOR Code(s)

0205 Optical Physics;  0906 Electrical and Electronic Engineering;  1005 Communications Technologies

Keyword(s)

Nanomaterials;  Nanostructures;  Photoconductive materials;  Photovoltaic;  Plasmonics;  Subwavelength structures

Publisher

Optical Society of America

ISSN

1094-4087

Publisher URL

http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/OE.20.00A694

Copyright

Copyright © 2012 Optical Society of America. This paper was published in Optics Express and is made available as an electronic reprint with the permission of OSA. The paper can be found at the following URL on the OSA website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/OE.20.00A694. Systematic or multiple reproduction or distribution to multiple locations via electronic or other means is prohibited and is subject to penalties under law. The published version of the paper is reproduced here in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher.

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