Colloidal self-assembled nanosphere arrays for plasmon-enhanced light trapping in thin film silicon solar cells

In this work, a novel technique is presented to fabricate PERs (composed of Ag min-or/TCO/MNPsiTCO) containing colloidal gold MNTS patterned with a self-assembly wet-coating method. The method allows the construction of long-range ordered arrays of MNPs with monodispeise size and shape using fast, scalable, low-cost and low-temperature (<120 degrees C) procedures.

To realize high-efficiency thin-film silicon solar cells it is crucial to develop light-trapping methods that can increase absorption of the near-bandgap light in the silicon material. That can be achieved using the far-field scattering properties of metal nanoparticles (MNP) sustaining surface plasmons. The MNT's should be inserted in the back of the cell, embedded in the transparent conductive oxide (TCO) layer which separates the rear mirror from the silicon layers. In this way, a plasmonic back reflector (PER) is constructed that can redirect light at angles away from the incidence direction and thereby increase its path length in the cell material.