Optical and Electrical Performance of MOS-Structure Silicon Solar Cells with Antireflective Transparent ITO and Plasmonic Indium Nanoparticles under Applied Bias Voltage

Abstract

This paper reports impressive improvements in the optical and electrical performance of metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS)-structure silicon solar cells through the incorporation of plasmonic indium nanoparticles (In-NPs) and an indium-tin-oxide (ITO) electrode with periodic holes (perforations) under applied bias voltage. Samples were prepared using a plain ITO electrode or perforated ITO electrode with and without In-NPs. The samples were characterized according to optical reflectance, dark current voltage, induced capacitance voltage, external quantum efficiency, and photovoltaic current voltage. Our results indicate that induced capacitance voltage and photovoltaic current voltage both depend on bias voltage, regardless of the type of ITO electrode. Under a bias voltage of 4.0 V, MOS cells with perforated ITO and plain ITO, respectively, presented conversion efficiencies of 17.53% and 15.80%. Under a bias voltage of 4.0 V, the inclusion of In-NPs increased the efficiency of cells with perforated ITO and plain ITO to 17.80% and 16.87%, respectively.

Towards integrated metatronics: a holistic approach on precise optical and electrical properties of Indium Tin Oxide

“…Indium Tin Oxide films have been extensively employed for diverse applications in the fields of optics and electronics in both research and industry [1]. Multiple uses of ITO ranges from photovoltaics [2][3][4][5] to conductive displays [6], integrated photonics [7,8] and solid-state [9]. ITO's versatility can be attributed to its concurrent optical transparency (T) and sheet resistance (R sheet ) (Figure of merit = T/ R sheet ) [10], as well as compatibility with the established technology [11].…”