Enhancing photovoltaic performance of plasmonic silicon solar cells with ITO nanoparticles dispersed in SiO2 anti-reflective layer

Abstract

In this study, we sought to enhance the photovoltaic performance of silicon solar cells by coating them (via the spin-on film technique) with a layer of SiO2 containing plasmonic indium-tin-oxide nanoparticles (ITO-NPs) of various concentrations. We demonstrated that the surface plasmon resonance absorption, surface morphology, and transmittance of the ITO-NPs dispersed in SiO2 layer at various concentrations (1-7 wt%). We also assessed the plasmonic scattering effects of ITO-NPs within a layer of SiO2 with and without a sub-layer of ITO in terms of optical reflectance, external quantum efficiency, and photovoltaic current-voltage under air mass (AM) 1.5G solar simulation. Compared to an uncoated reference silicon solar cell, applying a layer of SiO2 containing 3 wt% ITO-NPs improved efficiency by 17.90%, whereas applying the same layer over a sub-layer of ITO improved efficiency by 33.27%, due to the combined effects of anti-reflection and plasmonic scattering.