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Morphology Optimization of Silver Nanoparticles Used to Improve the Light Absorption in Thin-Film Silicon Solar Cells

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Abstract

Silver nanoparticle (NP) arrays are used as antireflection coating to enhance light trapping capability of thin-film silicon solar cells. In this paper, we theoretically investigate the differences of light absorption distribution between the silver NP (spherical and hemispherical) array layer and the crystalline silicon (CS) substrate. Compared to the naked silicon of the same thickness, the results show that only the flattened hemispherical silver NPs can really improve the light trapping ability and make the light absorption of CS body increase by 26%; the optimum ratio of lateral (NP diameter divided by the array periodicity) and longitudinal (NP height divided by diameter) are 0.86 and 0.22, respectively.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported partially by the National High-tech R&D Program of China (2015AA034601), National Natural Science Foundation of China (91333122, 61204064, 51202067, 51372082, 51402106, and 11504107), Ph.D. Programs Foundation of Ministry of Education of China (20120036120006, 20130036110012), Par-Eu Scholars Program, and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mathematical and Physical Science, North China Electric Power University, Beijing, 102206, China

    Zhiqiang Duan

  2. State Key Laboratory of Alternate Electrical Power System with Renewable Energy Sources, School of Renewable Energy, North China Electric Power University, Beijing, 102206, China

    Zhiqiang Duan, Meicheng Li, Trevor Mwenya, Yingfeng Li & Dandan Song

  3. Chongqing Materials Research Institute, Chongqing, 400707, China

    Meicheng Li

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  1. Zhiqiang Duan
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  2. Meicheng Li
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  3. Trevor Mwenya
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  4. Yingfeng Li
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  5. Dandan Song
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Correspondence to Meicheng Li.

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Duan, Z., Li, M., Mwenya, T. et al. Morphology Optimization of Silver Nanoparticles Used to Improve the Light Absorption in Thin-Film Silicon Solar Cells. Plasmonics 13, 555–561 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11468-017-0543-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11468-017-0543-z

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