Abstract
This paper studied characterized the plasmonic effects of silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs), the luminescent down-shifting of Eu-doped phosphor particles, and the metal-enhanced fluorescence (MEF) achieved by combining the two processes to enhance the conversion efficiency of silicon solar cells. We obtained measurements of photoluminescence (PL) and external quantum efficiency (EQE) at room temperature to determine whether the fluorescence emissions intensity of Eu-doped phosphor was enhanced or quenched by excitation induced via surface plasmon resonance (SPR). Overall, fluorescence intensity was enhanced when the fluorescence emission band was strongly coupled to the SPR band of Ag-NPs and the two particles were separated by a suitable distance. We observed a 1.125× increase in PL fluorescence intensity at a wavelength of 514 nm and a 7.05% improvement in EQE (from 57.96% to 62.05%) attributable to MEF effects. The combined effects led to a 26.02% increase in conversion efficiency (from 10.23% to 12.89%) in the cell with spacer/NPs/SOG-phosphors and a 22.09% increase (from 10.23% to 12.48%) in the cell with spacer/SOG-phosphors, compared to the bare solar cell. This corresponds to an impressive 0.85% increase in absolute efficiency (from 12.04% to 12.89%), compared to the cell with only spacer/SOG.
Highlights
Most efforts to further the development of silicon-based solar cells have focused on enhancing conversion efficiency and reducing overall costs [1,2,3,4]
The LSPR induced by metallic nano-size particles provided impressive near-field light concentration and far-field scattering
These results indicate that the Jsc and η values are in good agreement with the EQEW values, which was due to the fact that Jsc and η values are generally proportional to the external quantum efficiency (EQE) response of a solar cell
Summary
Most efforts to further the development of silicon-based solar cells have focused on enhancing conversion efficiency and reducing overall costs [1,2,3,4]. The conversion efficiency of crystalline silicon solar cells can be improved via light trapping using pyramidal surface structures or anti-reflective coatings [5,6]. Note that the theoretical maximum conversion efficiency of single-junction crystalline silicon solar cells is 31% [14,15] due to the bandgap energy (Eg ) of 1.1 eV. DC involves converting an incident high-energy photon (UV-blue wavelengths) into two or more photons of lower energy (within visible wavelengths). UC involves converting two or more photons of low energy (NIR-IR wavelengths)
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