Surface plasmon enhancement of optical absorption of thin film a-Si:H solar cells

Author

Biswas, R. ; Zhou, D. ; Curtin, B. ; Chakravarty, N. ; Dalal, V.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA, USA

fYear

2009

fDate

7-12 June 2009

Abstract

We design and fabricate a-Si:H solar cells with plasmonic crystal back reflectors demonstrating enhanced absorption of near infrared photons. Rigorous simulations predict plasmonic nanoparticles on ITO can increase absorption in the near infrared. Rigorous simulations also predict plasmonic crystal back reflectors with a pitch of ~750 nm to optimize the enhanced absorption. Such periodic back reflectors have been fabricated with photolithography and a-Si:H solar cells have been grown on them by PECVD. The solar cells display ~9% improvement in short circuit current and external quantum efficiency and a absorption enhancement factor exceeding 8 above 650 nm.

Keywords

elemental semiconductors; hydrogen; indium compounds; nanoparticles; nanophotonics; optical elements; optical fabrication; photolithography; plasmonics; semiconductor thin films; short-circuit currents; silicon; solar cells; surface plasmons; thin film devices; tin compounds; Si:H-ITO-Jk; absorption enhancement factor; external quantum efficiency; near infrared photons; optical absorption; photolithography; plasmonic crystal back reflectors; plasmonic nanoparticles; rigorous simulations; short circuit current; surface plasmon; thin film solar cells; Circuit simulation; Electromagnetic wave absorption; Indium tin oxide; Lithography; Nanoparticles; Optical films; Photonic crystals; Photovoltaic cells; Plasmons; Predictive models;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC), 2009 34th IEEE

Conference_Location

Philadelphia, PA

ISSN

0160-8371

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-2949-3

Electronic_ISBN

0160-8371

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PVSC.2009.5411623

Filename

5411623