Enhanced optical response of crystalline silicon photovoltaic devices with integration of silver nanoparticles and ultrathin TiO2 dielectric layer
Mingjie Li,
Zhaopeng Xu,
Daxue Du,
Xiaoya Duan,
Fengyan Wang,
Jian Wang,
Yulian Zeng,
Haiyan Wang
Affiliations
Mingjie Li
Key Laboratory of Applied Chemistry, Department of Applied Chemistry, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao 066004, P. R. China
Zhaopeng Xu
School of Information Science and Engineering, The Key Laboratory for Special Fiber and Fiber Sensor of Hebei Province, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao 066004, P. R. China
Daxue Du
Key Laboratory of Applied Chemistry, Department of Applied Chemistry, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao 066004, P. R. China
Xiaoya Duan
Key Laboratory of Applied Chemistry, Department of Applied Chemistry, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao 066004, P. R. China
Fengyan Wang
Key Laboratory of Applied Chemistry, Department of Applied Chemistry, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao 066004, P. R. China
Jian Wang
School of Information Science and Engineering, The Key Laboratory for Special Fiber and Fiber Sensor of Hebei Province, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao 066004, P. R. China
Yulian Zeng
Key Laboratory of Applied Chemistry, Department of Applied Chemistry, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao 066004, P. R. China
Haiyan Wang
Key Laboratory of Applied Chemistry, Department of Applied Chemistry, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao 066004, P. R. China
Silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) and the titanium dioxide (TiO2) dielectric layer produced by magnetron sputtering and subsequent annealing treatment, were integrated at the front side of crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells. A photovoltaic device was realized based on the c-Si substrate and stacked Ag NPs/TiO2/n/p/Ag layer. The results show that the energy conversion efficiency (ECE) can be improved by 9.9% with the introduction of well-sized Ag NPs and an ultrathin TiO2 dielectric layer to the c-Si solar cells. The presence of the dielectric layer enables Ag NPs to fully exert the advantage of localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) and light scattering, and the recombination of the photogenerated carriers originating from Ag NPs is effectively avoided at the surface or in the vicinity of Ag NPs. Moreover, COMSOL Multiphysics simulations were performed to investigate the reflection and absorption of incident light in the c-Si. The simulation results match well with the experimental data.
