Improved efficiency of thin film a-Si:H solar cells using combination of silver and gold plasmonic nanoparticles

The effect of gold (Au) and Silver (Ag) nanoparticles (NPs) on a-Si:H n-i-p thin-film solar cells has been studied. 80 nm Ag and 80 nm Au NPs are spin coated on top of the fabricated cells. For the cell spin coated with only Ag NPs the Jsc changes on average from 4.53 mA/cm2 to 4.69 mA/cm2. The efficiency also changes from 2.37% to 2.41%. The cell with Ag NPs also shows an improved spectral response. Compared to reference cell, the peak EQE increases by ~4.72% at 500 nm. For the cell with both Ag and Au NPs, the Jsc increases on average from 4.53 mA/cm2 to 4.75 mA/cm2. The efficiency is 2.43%. Compared to reference cell, the peak EQE increases ~6.11% at 500 nm. Compared to Ag NPs coated cell, Ag and Au NPs coated cell shows an improvement of 1.28% and 0.82% in Jsc and efficiency respectively. This indicates that combination of nanoparticle will have stronger plasmonic effect.