The surface plasmon resonances induced light coupling is widely recognized as a promising way of enhancing the light absorption in photovoltic devices. This is achieved by enhanced localized electromagnetic field in the vicinity of metal surface or the strong light scattering effects from metal nanoparticles integrated on the front surface of as-fabricated solar cells. In this paper, the colloidal gold nanoparticles(Au NPs), synthesized by modified Turkevich and Frens method, were integrated onto the inverted nanopyramid silicon solar cell via a dip coating method. A 7% increase in short-circuit current density of solar cell was observed for 15 minutes dip coating. As a result, a 4.6% increase in overall efficiency was achieved. However,the dense surface coverage of Au NPs resulted in decreased fill factor.

Date Published: 7 December 2013
PDF: 9 pages
Proc. SPIE 8923, Micro/Nano Materials, Devices, and Systems, 89232F (7 December 2013); doi: 10.1117/12.2033731

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 8923:
Micro/Nano Materials, Devices, and Systems
James Friend; H. Hoe Tan, Editor(s)