Photovoltaic characteristics and non-idealities of thin film silicon plasmonic solar cells

Abstract

We here propose a unique strategy to attain a visible improvement in not only short circuit current but also conversion efficiency through the integration of Indium plasmonic nanoparticles on the front surface over Titanium Di-oxide antireflection coating of thin silicon solar cell. Photovoltaic dark current, current-voltage responses at 15nm, 28nm, 59.5nm and 70nm thick Titanium Di-oxide layer indicate the ratio of power output from the solar cell to input power from the sun on thin silicon solar cell has been augmented by AR coating along with Indium nanoparticles. For bare silicon cell and Indium particle deposited, 59.5 nm thick spacer layer coated Si cell short circuit currents were 2.64mA and 3.81 mA respectively. The maximum short circuit current enhancement was observed as 44.32%while conversion efficiency was increased by 40.42% in comparison to simple silicon solar cell. The efficiency depends on the spectrum, the temperature and parasitic resistances of the solar cell. Therefore, conditions under which efficiency is measured must be sensibly controlled to evaluate the performance of the device. The temperature effect and non-ideality effect on cell performance was monitored.