Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-cx56b Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-25T23:10:03.305Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Plasmonic Light-trapping and Quantum Efficiency Measurements On Nanocrystalline Silicon Solar Cells and Silicon-On-Insulator Devices

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2011

Hui Zhao ,
Birol Ozturk ,
Eric A Schiff ,
Baojie Yan ,
Jeff Yang  and
Subhendu Guha
Hui Zhao
Affiliation:
hzhao01@syr.edu, Syracuse University, physics, syracuse, New York, United States
Birol Ozturk
Affiliation:
biozturk@syr.edu, Syracuse University, Physics, 201 Physics Building, Syracuse, New York, 13244, United States
Eric A Schiff
Affiliation:
easchiff@syr.edu, Syracuse University, Physics, 201 Physics Building, Syracuse, New York, 13244-1130, United States, 315-443-3901
Baojie Yan
Affiliation:
byan@scholarone.com, United Solar Ovonic LLC, R&D, Troy, Michigan, United States
Jeff Yang
Affiliation:
jyang@uni-solar.com, United Solar Ovonic LLC, 1100 West Maple Road, Troy, Michigan, 48084, United States
Subhendu Guha
Affiliation:
sguha@uni-solar.com, United Solar, 3800 Lapeer Road, Auburn Hills, Michigan, MI 48326, United States, 248 364 5707
Get access

Abstract

Quantum efficiency measurements in (nc-Si:H) solar cells deposited onto textured substrates indicate that these cells are close to the “stochastic light-trapping limit“ proposed by Yablonovitch in the 1980s. An interesting alternative to texturing is “plasmonic“ light-trapping based on non-textured cells and using an overlayer of metallic nanoparticles to produce light-trapping. While this type of light-trapping has not yet been demonstrated for nc-Si:H solar cells, significant photocurrent enhancements have been reported on silicon-on-insulator devices with similar optical properties to nc-Si:H. Here we report our work on the measurerements of quantum efficiencies in nc-Si:H solar cells and normalized photoconductance spectra in SOI photdetectors with and without silver nanoparticle layers. As was done previously, the silver nanoparticles were created by thermal annealing of evaporated silver thin films. We observed enhancement in the normalized photoconductance spectra of SOI photodetectors at longer wavelengths with the silver nanoparticles. For nc-Si:H solar cells, we have not yet observed significant improvement of the quantum efficiency with the addition of annealed silver films.

Keywords

Agphotovoltaicnanostructure
Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 1245: Symposium A – Amorphous and Polycrystalline Thin-Film Silicon Science and Technology-2010 , 2010 , 1245-A03-02
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Yablonovitch, E., J. Opt. Soc. Am. 72, 899 (1982).Google Scholar
2 Stuart, H. R. and Hall, D. G., Appl. Phys. Lett. 69, 2327 (1996).Google Scholar
3 Pillai, S., Catchpole, K. R., Trupke, T. and Green, M. A., J. Appl. Phys. 101, 093105 (2007).Google Scholar
4 Beck, F. J., Mokkapati, S., Polman, A., and Catchpole, K. R., Appl. Phys. Lett. 96, 033113 (2010).Google Scholar
5 Schaadt, D. M., Feng, B., and Yu, E. T., Appl. Phys. Lett. 86, 063106 (2005).Google Scholar
6 Yang, J., Yan, B., Yue, G., Guha, S., D. Mater. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. 1153, A13–02, (2009).Google Scholar
7In previous studies, the surface was coated with a 30 nm lithium fluoride (LiF) spacer layer before the silver deposition [2,3]. We tested the effect of LiF layer and found that this layer had little effect; we did not use the LiF spacer layer for the measurements presented here.Google Scholar
8 Ozturk, B., Zhao, H., Schiff, E. A., Yan, B., Yang, J., Guha, S., unpublished.Google Scholar
9 Draine, B. T., Flatau, P. J., J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 11, 1491 (1994)Google Scholar
10 Johnson, P. B. and Christy, R. W., Phys. Rev. B 6, 4370 (1972)Google Scholar
11 Mertens, H., Verhoeven, J., Polman, A., Appl. Phys. Lett., Vol. 85, No. 8, 23 (2004)Google Scholar
12 Knoll, B., Keilmann, F., Nature 399, 134 (1999).Google Scholar
13 Protsenko, I. P. and O'Reilly, E. P., Phys. Rev. A 74, 033815 (2006).Google Scholar
14 Jung, Y. S., Thin Solid Films 467, 36 (2004)Google Scholar
15 Palik, E. D., Handbook of Optical Constants of Solids Vol.2 (AP,1991) and Vol.3 (AP, 1998).Google Scholar
16 Bohren, C. F. and Huffman, D. R., Absorption and scattering of light by small particles (Wiley-Interscience, New York, 1983)Google Scholar
17 Soller, B. J., Stuart, H. R., and Hall, D. G., Opt. Lett. 26, 1421 (2001).Google Scholar
18 Mertz, J., J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 17, 1906 (2000)Google Scholar