Comparison of Ag and SiO2 Nanoparticles for Light Trapping Applications in Silicon Thin Film Solar Cells.
Plasmonic and photonic light trapping structures can significantly improve the efficiency of solar cells. This work presents an experimental and computational comparison of identically shaped metallic (Ag) and nonmetallic (SiO2) nanoparticles integrated to the back contact of amorphous silicon solar cells. Our results show comparable performance for both samples, suggesting that minor influence arises from the nanoparticle material. Particularly, no additional beneficial effect of the plasmonic features due to metallic nanoparticles could be observed.
§NEXT ENERGY, EWE Research Centre for Energy Technology, University of Oldenburg, 26129 Oldenburg, Germany.
Martin
M
Theuring
†Department of Chemistry, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia V8W 3V6, Canada.
Peng Hui
PH
Wang
§NEXT ENERGY, EWE Research Centre for Energy Technology, University of Oldenburg, 26129 Oldenburg, Germany.
Martin
M
Vehse
§NEXT ENERGY, EWE Research Centre for Energy Technology, University of Oldenburg, 26129 Oldenburg, Germany.
Volker
V
Steenhoff
§NEXT ENERGY, EWE Research Centre for Energy Technology, University of Oldenburg, 26129 Oldenburg, Germany.
Karsten
K
von Maydell
§NEXT ENERGY, EWE Research Centre for Energy Technology, University of Oldenburg, 26129 Oldenburg, Germany.
Carsten
C
Agert
†Department of Chemistry, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia V8W 3V6, Canada.
Alexandre G
AG
Brolo
finite-difference time domain; hydrogenated amorphous silicon; nanosphere lithography; plasmonic solar cell