Improved efficiency of thin film a-Si:H solar cells with Au nanoparticles

Islam, Kazi; Alnuaimi, Aaesha; Okyay, Ali Kemal; Nayfeh, Ammar

doi:10.1109/pvsc.2013.6744508

Cited by 7 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Then 80 nm of ITO was sputtered on the top layer using RF sputtering tool (http://www.mvsystemsinc.com/ researchand-development-services, 2014). More details of the solar cell fabrication process can be found in (Abdul Hadi et al, 2014Hadi et al, , 2011Chowdhury et al, 2014;Islam et al, 2013). Afterwards 100 nm Au nanoparticles dispersed in Phosphate Buffered Saline (PBS) (http:// www.sigmaaldrich.com/materials-science/nanomaterials/ gold-nanoparticles, 2014) solution were spin-coated on top of ITO.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative study of thin film n-i-p a-Si:H solar cells to investigate the effect of absorber layer thickness on the plasmonic enhancement using gold nanoparticles

et al. 2015

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In this paper, the effect of gold nanoparticles on n-i-p a-Si:H solar cells with different intrinsic layer (i-layer) thicknesses has been studied. 100 nm and 500 nm i-layer based n-i-p a-Si:H solar cells were fabricated and colloidal gold (Au) nanoparticles dispersed in water-based solution were spin-coated on the top surface of the solar cells. The Au nanoparticles are of spherical shape and have 100 nm diameter. Electrical and quantum efficiency measurements were carried out and the results show an increase in short-circuit current density (J sc ), efficiency and external quantum efficiency (EQE) with the incorporation of the nanoparticles on both cells. J sc increases from 5.91 mA/cm 2 to 6.5 mA/cm 2 ($10% relative increase) and efficiency increases from 3.38% to 3.97% ($17.5% relative increase) for the 100 nm i-layer solar cell after plasmonic enhancement whereas J sc increases from 9.34 mA/cm 2 to 10.1 mA/cm 2 ($7.5% relative increase) and efficiency increases from 4.27% to 4.99% ($16.9% relative increase) for the 500 nm i-layer cell. The results show that plasmonic enhancement is more effective in 100 nm than 500 nm i-layer thickness for a-Si:H solar cells. Moreover, the results are discussed in terms of light absorption and electron hole pair generation.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative study of thin film n-i-p a-Si:H solar cells to investigate the effect of absorber layer thickness on the plasmonic enhancement using gold nanoparticles

et al. 2015

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“…ITO with a thickness of 80 nm was sputtered immediately afterwards to avoid interface defects using the RF sputtering tool [17][18][19]. More details of solar cell fabrication steps can be found in [6,7,20,21]. InN NPs in ethanol solution were then spin coated on top of ITO.…”

Section: Solar Cell Structure and Fabricationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, decreasing the thickness also decreases the absorption of light and reduces the overall current the solar cell can generate. As a result, the use of such as nanoparticles to improve the performance of thin film solar cells is a topic of increased research and interest [1][2][3][4][5][6][7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enhanced Light Scattering with Energy Downshifting Using 16 Nm Indium Nitride Nanoparticles for Improved Thin-Film a-Si N-I-P Solar Cells

Chowdhury¹,

Islam²,

Alkis

et al. 2015

ECS Trans.

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In this work the effect of Indium nitride (InN) nanoparticles (NPs) on the performance of a-Si:H solar cells has been investigated. The average J sc of InN NPs coated cells was found 6.76 mA/cm 2 which is 16.69% higher than the average J sc of the reference cell which was 5.79 mA/cm 2. Average efficiency of InN NPs coated cells showed 14.16% increase from 3.32% to 3.79%. Peak EQE has increased from 44.8% at 500 nm to 51.67% at 510 nm and peak IQE has increased from 51.70% at 510 nm to 68.38% at 500 nm for InN NPs coated cell. Further study shows that EQE change is larger between 510 nm-700 nm compared to IQE change indicting a surface scattering mechanism that reduces the reflectivity. However, between 400 nm-510 nm IQE change is larger than EQE change which indicates that energy downshifting mechanism is dominating. So overall performance enhancement can be attributed to the scattering and photoluminescence properties of InN NPs that enhances absorption inside a-Si:H solar cells.

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“…For enhanced absorption in thin film solar cells, different approaches such as surface texturing and back reflectors have been described [4]. More recently, nanotechnology has been used with plasmonic light trapping of metal nanoparticles like gold (Au) and silver (Ag) [5] [6]. For incorporating metal nanoparticles into solar cells, different methods have been established that includes island annealing and colloidal metal particles [6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…More recently, nanotechnology has been used with plasmonic light trapping of metal nanoparticles like gold (Au) and silver (Ag) [5] [6]. For incorporating metal nanoparticles into solar cells, different methods have been established that includes island annealing and colloidal metal particles [6]. Though most of the publications in this field have presented data for backscattering by implementing the nanoparticles in the back side of the solar cells, a recent study shows insightful results of placing Ag particles on the top surface of thin film solar cells [7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

∼10% increase in short-circuit current density using 100nm plasmonic Au nanoparticles on thin film n-i-p a-Si:H solar cells

Islam¹,

Chowdhury²,

Alnuaimi³

et al. 2014

2014 IEEE 40th Photovoltaic Specialist Conference (PVSC)

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The effect of Au nanoparticles on the performance of a-Si:H solar cells is investigated experimentally. 100 nm colloidal plasmonic Au nanoparticles are spin-coated before metallization on a-Si:H n-i-p solar cells with 100 nm thick intrinsic absorber layer. The J sc increases from 5.91 mA/cm 2 to 6.5 mA/cm 2 (10% increase) and the peak EQE increases from 45% to 51% (13.3% increase) for the 100 nm i-layer solar cell after plasmonic enhancement. In addition the effect of i-layer thickness on the amount of plasmonic enhancement is studied. For the 500 nm i-layer cell, the J sc increases from 9.34 mA/cm 2 to 10.1 mA/cm 2 (7.5% increase). The results show that plasmonic enhancement is more effective for thinner a-Si:H solar cells.

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Improved efficiency of thin film a-Si:H solar cells with Au nanoparticles

Cited by 7 publications

References 15 publications

Comparative study of thin film n-i-p a-Si:H solar cells to investigate the effect of absorber layer thickness on the plasmonic enhancement using gold nanoparticles

Comparative study of thin film n-i-p a-Si:H solar cells to investigate the effect of absorber layer thickness on the plasmonic enhancement using gold nanoparticles

Enhanced Light Scattering with Energy Downshifting Using 16 Nm Indium Nitride Nanoparticles for Improved Thin-Film a-Si N-I-P Solar Cells

∼10% increase in short-circuit current density using 100nm plasmonic Au nanoparticles on thin film n-i-p a-Si:H solar cells

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Improved efficiency of thin film a-Si:H solar cells with Au nanoparticles

Cited by 7 publications

References 15 publications

Comparative study of thin film n-i-p a-Si:H solar cells to investigate the effect of absorber layer thickness on the plasmonic enhancement using gold nanoparticles

Comparative study of thin film n-i-p a-Si:H solar cells to investigate the effect of absorber layer thickness on the plasmonic enhancement using gold nanoparticles

Enhanced Light Scattering with Energy Downshifting Using 16 Nm Indium Nitride Nanoparticles for Improved Thin-Film a-Si N-I-P Solar Cells

&#x223C;10% increase in short-circuit current density using 100nm plasmonic Au nanoparticles on thin film n-i-p a-Si:H solar cells

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∼10% increase in short-circuit current density using 100nm plasmonic Au nanoparticles on thin film n-i-p a-Si:H solar cells