Plasmonics for Light Trapping in Thin Silicon Solar Cells

Abstract

The cost of the wafer represents a significant share of the cost of a solar module. One way to reduce it is to reduce the wafer thickness. However, this leads to increases in the transmission of the sunlight through the cell. Therefore, light trapping schemes must be applied to the solar cell. In recent years, metallic nanoparticles have been shown to enhance absorption in a solar cell through surface plasmon-related effects. In the present work, a method of producing silver nanoparticles has been investigated; evaporation of silver followed by annealing. Electron microscopy was used to determine how particle size and shape depends on process conditions. Process parameters such as deposited silver thickness and time and temperature of the annealing step were investigated. The change in reflection, transmission and photoluminescence, when adding silver nanoparticles on the silicon wafers, were also measured.