Imprinted silver nanovoid arrays are investigated via angle-resolved reflectometry to demonstrate their suitability for plasmonic light trapping. Both wavelength- and subwavelength-scale nanovoids are imprinted into standard solar cell architectures to achieve nanostructured metallic electrodes which provide enhanced absorption for improving solar cell performance. The technique is versatile, l...

It is known that the light scattering from the metal particles deposited on the surfaces of cells can be used for increasing light trapping in the solar cells. In this work, plasmonic structures are composite materials that consisted of silver nanoparticles embedded in dielectric films of TiO x -used as cell antireflection coating. The films are deposited by sol-gel method using spin-on techniq...

In photovoltaic devices, light harvesting (LH) and carrier collection have opposite relations with the thickness of the photoactive layer, which imposes a fundamental compromise for the power conversion efficiency (PCE). Unbalanced LH at different wavelengths further reduces the achievable PCE. Here, we report a novel approach to broadband balanced LH and panchromatic solar energy conversion us...

Performances of textured crystalline-silicon (c-Si) solar cells enhanced by silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) and indium nanoparticles (In-NPs) plasmonic effects are experimentally demonstrated and compared. Plasmonic nanoparticles integrated into textured c-Si solar cells can further increase the absorption and enhance the short-circuit current density (Jsc) of the solar cell. To examine the profi...

In P3HT:PCBM based organic solar cells we propose and demonstrate numerically plasmonic backcontact grating architectures for strong optical absorption enhanced in both transverse-magnetic and transverse-electric polarizations. Even when the active material is partially replaced by the metallic grating (without increasing the active layer film thickness), we show computationally that the light ...

A solar cell based on a hot electron plasmon protection effect is proposed and made plausible by simulations, non-local modeling of the response, and quantum mechanical calculations. In this cell, a thin-film, plasmonic metamaterial structure acts as both an efficient photon absorber in the visible frequency range and a plasmonic resonator in the IR range, the latter of which absorbs and protec...

Related Articles Near-field light concentration of ultra-small metallic nanoparticles for absorption enhancement in a-Si solar cells Appl. Phys. Lett. 102, 093107 (2013) Influence of back contact roughness on light trapping and plasmonic losses of randomly textured amorphous silicon thin film solar cells Appl. Phys. Lett. 102, 083501 (2013) Spatially resolved electrical parameters of silicon wa...

We show experimentally that the photocurrent of thin-film hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon (lc-Si:H) solar cells can be enhanced by 4.5 mA/cm with a plasmonic back reflector (BR). The light trapping performance is improved using plasmonic BR with broader angular scattering and lower parasitic absorption loss through tuning the size of silver nanoparticles. The lc-Si:H solar cells deposited...

We report that self-assembled gold (Au) nanopyramid arrays can greatly enhance the photocurrent of narrow bandgap organic solar cells using their plasmonic near-field effect. The plasmonic enhanced power conversion efficiency exhibited up to 200% increase under the AM 1.5 solar illumination.