∼10% increase in short-circuit current density using 100nm plasmonic Au nanoparticles on thin film n-i-p a-Si:H solar cells

The effect of Au nanoparticles on the performance of a-Si:H solar cells is investigated experimentally. 100 nm colloidal plasmonic Au nanoparticles are spin-coated before metallization on a-Si:H n-i-p solar cells with 100 nm thick intrinsic absorber layer. The J_sc increases from 5.91 mA/cm² to 6.5 mA/cm² (10% increase) and the peak EQE increases from 45% to 51% (13.3% increase) for the 100 nm i-layer solar cell after plasmonic enhancement. In addition the effect of i-layer thickness on the amount of plasmonic enhancement is studied. For the 500 nm i-layer cell, the J_sc increases from 9.34 mA/cm² to 10.1 mA/cm² (7.5% increase). The results show that plasmonic enhancement is more effective for thinner a-Si:H solar cells.