Plasmonic nanoparticle films for solar cell applications fabricated by size-selective aerosol deposition

Plasmonic nanoparticle films for solar cell applications fabricated by size-selective aerosol deposition

Pfeiffer, T.V.
Ortiz Gonzalez, J.
Santbergen, R.
Tan, H.
Schmidt-Ott, A.
Zeman, M.
Smets, A.H.M.

Applied Sciences

ChemE/Chemical Engineering

2014-12-31

A soft deposition method for incorporating surface plasmon resonant metal nanoparticles within photovoltaic devices was studied. This self-assembly method provides excellent control over both nanoparticle size and surface coverage. Films of spherical Ag nanoparticles with diameter of ?100 nm were fabricated by depositing size-selected aerosols on various substrates using electrophoresis. This novel deposition method opens the route to embed plasmonic nanoparticles in the intermediate reflector of a micromorph silicon tandem PV cell. We have for the first time fabricated working tandem cells of this type. Compared to a flat reference device the Ag particles enhanced the short-circuit current density due to improved light trapping. The enhancement is, however, limited by the sulfidation on the surface of Ag nanoparticles and a further optimization of the cell fabrication method is required to prevent a reduction of open-circuit voltage and fill factor.

light trapping
plasmonics
silver nanoparticles
aerosol
thin-film solar cells

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:3ed4c199-e244-459f-bd42-9f130a89da7c

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2014.12.335

Elsevier

1876-6102

Energy Procedia, 60, 2014; E-MRS Spring Meeting 2014 Symposium Y “Advanced materials and characterization techniques for solar cells II”, Lille, France, 26-30 May 2014

Institutional Repository

conference paper

© 2014 The Authors
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license