naa a22 4500 510817661 CHVBK 20180411083516.0 cr unu---uuuuu 180411e20130601xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s11468-012-9473-y doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s11468-012-9473-y Optimization of Dielectric-Coated Silver Nanoparticle Films for Plasmonic-Enhanced Light Trapping in Thin Film Silicon Solar Cells [Elektronische Daten] [Jing Rao, Sergey Varlamov, Jongsung Park, Svetlana Dligatch, Anatoli Chtanov] Surface plasmonic-enhanced light trapping from metal nanoparticles is a promising way of increasing the light absorption in the active silicon layer and, therefore, the photocurrent of the silicon solar cells. In this paper, we applied silver nanoparticles on the rear side of polycrystalline silicon thin film solar cell and systematically studied the dielectric environment effect on the absorption and short-circuit current density (Jsc) of the device. Three different dielectric layers, magnesium fluoride (MgF2, n = 1.4), tantalum pentoxide (Ta2O5, n = 2.2), and titanium dioxide (TiO2, n = 2.6), were investigated. Experimentally, we found that higher refractive index dielectric coatings results in a redshift of the main plasmonic extinction peak and higher modes were excited within the spectral region that is of interest in our thin film solar cell application. The optical characterization shows that nanoparticles coated with highest refractive index dielectric TiO2 provides highest absorption enhancement 75.6%; however, from the external quantum efficiency characterization, highest short-circuit current density Jsc enhancement of 45.8% was achieved by coating the nanoparticles with lower refractive index MgF2. We also further optimize the thickness of MgF2 and a final 50.2% Jsc enhancement was achieved with a 210-nm MgF2 coating and a back reflector. Springer Science+Business Media New York, 2012 Surface plasmons nationallicence Silver nanoparticles nationallicence Light trapping nationallicence Silicon thin film solar cell nationallicence Rao Jing School of Photovoltaics, University of New South Wales, 2052, Sydney, Australia aut Varlamov Sergey School of Photovoltaics, University of New South Wales, 2052, Sydney, Australia aut Park Jongsung School of Photovoltaics, University of New South Wales, 2052, Sydney, Australia aut Dligatch Svetlana Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation Materials Science and Engineering, Lindfield, PO Box 218, 2070, Sydney, NSW, Australia aut Chtanov Anatoli Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation Materials Science and Engineering, Lindfield, PO Box 218, 2070, Sydney, NSW, Australia aut Plasmonics Springer US; http://www.springer-ny.com 8/2(2013-06-01), 785-791 1557-1955 8:2<785 2013 8 11468 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11468-012-9473-y text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11468-012-9473-y text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Rao Jing School of Photovoltaics, University of New South Wales, 2052, Sydney, Australia aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Varlamov Sergey School of Photovoltaics, University of New South Wales, 2052, Sydney, Australia aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Park Jongsung School of Photovoltaics, University of New South Wales, 2052, Sydney, Australia aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Dligatch Svetlana Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation Materials Science and Engineering, Lindfield, PO Box 218, 2070, Sydney, NSW, Australia aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Chtanov Anatoli Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation Materials Science and Engineering, Lindfield, PO Box 218, 2070, Sydney, NSW, Australia aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Plasmonics Springer US; http://www.springer-ny.com 8/2(2013-06-01), 785-791 1557-1955 8:2<785 2013 8 11468 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer