Fundamentals of Solar Cell Design. Rajender Boddula
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2.4.2 Plasmonic-Enhanced Solar Cell
They are considered as simple plasmonic solar cells. The crystalline or amorphous silicon and thin film solar cells can be developed using SPR of metal nanoparticles. The plasmonic nanostructure can act as light harvesting antennas to enhance optical path length of photon through scattering that resulting in enhanced absorption and generation of e-h pairs in semiconductors [50]. For example, deposition of Au, Ag, or Cu metal nanoparticle array in Si/SiO2 device increases 20 times more photocurrent in plasmonic solar cell. The various solar cell technologies such as conventional silicon, GaAs, CIGS, CdTe, and CZTS have been demonstrated using plasmonic nanostructures with improved efficiency. By making stacks of thin film PV cell, the multi-wavelength light can be absorbed in plasmonic solar cells through enhanced scattering [51–53].
2.4.3 Plasmonic Thin Film Solar Cells
Plasmonic thin film designs in solar cells improve the absorption using SPR. This enhancement is mainly because of the manipulation of light for getting desired circulation, absorption, and scattering. The very thin photo active layer upto 100 nm has been proved theoretically. They can use cheaper substrate than silicon such as plastic, steel, or glass [54].
The arrays of metal nanostructures at top of GaAs solar cell have been demonstrated and achieved enhanced performance in near-IR region [55]. The silver metal nanoparticle based plasmonic GaAs solar cells have shown 8% increment in short circuit current and achieved 5.9% efficiency. The plasmonic nanoparticles have the potential to make thinner PV layers with enhanced performance.
Integrating plasmonic nanostructures with silicon solar cells can significantly enhance the absorption in visible as well as near-IR spectrum. Green et al. have demonstrated the enhanced absorption in silicon thin film PV cells using Ag plasmonic nanoparticles [52]. Yang et al. have demonstrated monocrystalline silicon solar cells with effect of plasmon resonance on silicon nanowire decorated with Ag metal nanoparticles [53]. Yue et al. have demonstrated 15% enhancement in absorption by using plasmonic core-shell (the dielectric as core and metal as shell) insulators for a-Si solar cells [54]. Atwater et al. have demonstrated amorphous Si PV device with about 26% efficiency by usage of plasmonic nanostructure [59]. This device configuration has improved the electrical properties of the PV cells. Zhang et al. have fabricated plasmonic solar cell with about 18.2% efficiency using advanced light trapping approach in a proper device design, which has reduced the wafer thickness without loss in energy conversion [53]. Derkacs et al. have demonstrated 8.3% energy conversion efficiency with gold nanoparticles on thin film silicon [57]. Stuart and Hall et al. have achieved enhanced photocurrent by a factor of 18- at 800-nm wavelength in 165 nm thick Si/insulator with silver metal nanoparticles at the top surface of PV cell [56]. Schaadt et al. have shown the improvements in silicon solar cells by 80% at 500-nm wavelength using gold nanoparticles at top of surface [58]. Pillai et al. have shown the increment in photocurrent by 19%–33% using Ag plasmonic nanoparticles [52]. Singh and Verma et al. have used fabricated silicon plasmonic solar cell using copper plasmonic nanoparticles [65]. The mc-Si PV devices also have been shown using Al metal nanoparticles as antireflection coating (ARC) on top surface. This configuration has achieved the solar cell parameters such as 34.0 mA/ cm2 short circuit current (Isc) and efficiency of 14.5% [66]. Lian et al. have reported on the loss of hot electrons [59]. There is a need of quality research to