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Simultaneous broadband light trapping and fill factor enhancement in crystalline silicon solar cells induced by Ag nanoparticles and nanoshells

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Abstract

Crystalline silicon solar cells are predominant and occupying more than 89% of the global solar photovoltaic market. Despite the boom of the innovative solar technologies, few can provide a low-cost radical solution to dramatically boost the efficiency of crystalline silicon solar cells, which has reached plateau in the past ten years. Here, we present a novel strategy to simultaneously achieve dramatic enhancement in the short-circuit current and the fill factor through the integration of Ag plasmonic nanoparticles and nanoshells on the antireflection coating and the screen-printed fingers of monocrystalline silicon solar cells, respectively, by a single step and scalable modified electroless displacement method. As a consequence, up to 35.2% enhancement in the energy conversion efficiency has been achieved due to the plasmonic broadband light trapping and the significant reduction in the series resistance. More importantly, this method can further increase the efficiency of the best performing textured solar cells from 18.3% to 19.2%, producing the highest efficiency cells exceeding the state-of-the-art efficiency of the standard screen-printed solar cells. The dual functions of the Ag nanostructures, reported for the first time here, present a clear contrast to the previous works, where plasmonic nanostructures were integrated into solar cells to achieve the short-circuit current enhancement predominately. Our method offers a facile, cost-effective and scalable pathway for metallic nanostructures to be used to dramatically boost the overall efficiency of the optically thick crystalline silicon solar cells.

©2012 Optical Society of America

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Figures (6)

Fig. 1
Fig. 1 Electroless deposition set-up and mechanism of simultaneous formation of Ag NPs and nanoshells. (a) Schematic diagram of the experimental set-up for Ag electroless deposition onto Si solar cells from the fluoride free solution. (b) Sketch shows the Ag NPs formation mechanism, the silver ions reduced by getting electrons from Si through Si nanoclusters, scratches, pinholes, and blisters in SiNx ARC. (c) Formation of Ag NPs on the screen-printed (SP) fingers and SiNx ARC after deposition for 10 min. (d) Formation of Ag nanoshells on the SP fingers and Ag NPs on SiNx ARC after deposition for 20 min.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2 SEM micrographs of Ag nanoparticles deposited by electroless deposition on the front surface of planar Si solar cells and their corresponding histograms (bottom) that show the statistical analysis of micrographs and the size distributions of (a) 21.4 nm, (b) 52.5 nm and (c) 61.5 nm. The surface coverage is 3, 3, and 6.9% for (a), (b), and (c), respectively. The scale bar is 200 nm.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3 SEM images of the fingers of the planar solar cells before and after the electroless Ag deposition. (a) SEM micrograph of the finger with the Ag nanoshell. The inset shows schematic diagram of the fingers with the Ag nanoshell. (b) SEM micrograph of the cross-section of the SP finger after the electroless deposition of Ag for 20 min. Two distinguishable layers can be identified, one smooth (i.e. no Ag clusters can be distinguished) corresponding to the Ag nanoshell that covers the finger and the rough one corresponding to the SP Ag. (c) SEM micrograph of spongy SP front-finger prior to the Ag electroless deposition for comparison. The inset show schematic diagram of the SP fingers before the deposition of Ag shell (d) EDX spectrum of the fingers prior to the Ag shell formation, it is evident that the presence of Pb peaks due to the presence of glass frit (typically lead borosilicate glass) in the SP Ag fingers.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4 The optical properties and the EQE performance of planar Si solar cells before and after electroless Ag deposition. (a) EQE and reflectance of the pristine solar cell before the Ag electroless deposition. (b) Relative reflectance normalized to the pristine cell and cells with Ag NPs of average sizes 21, 52.5, and 61.5 nm. (c) Relative EQE of cells with the Ag NPs of average size of 21, 52.5, and 61.5 nm normalized to the pristine cell. (d) Relative EQE and reflectance of the solar cells with Ag NPs of an average size of 61.5 nm.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5 Current density-voltage characteristic curves of planar silicon solar cell before and after the electroless deposition of Ag NPs of average particle sizes of 21, 52.5, and 61.5 nm.
Fig. 6
Fig. 6 External quantum efficiency (EQE) characteristics (a), Relative EQE (b), Reflectance (c), and IV curves (d) of high performance standard textured monocrystalline Si solar cell with and without Ag NPs of mean size 55.5 ± 27.7 nm on the same cell.

Tables (1)

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Table 1 Summary of current density-voltage photovoltaic characteristics and energy conversion efficiency enhancement for planar silicon solar cells before and after electroless deposition of silver nanoparticles

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