Study the influence of shell thickness in bimetallic Ag core&Au shell configurations integrated in bare Si PN junction solar cells

Abstract

The effect of the gold layer thickness of Ag core&Au shell configurations on the performance of the bare Si n-type layer of a PN junction solar cell was explored. The different forms of Ag core&Au shell configurations were formed via pulsed laser ablation method of Ag and Au plate using second harmonic generation (SHG) of Nd:YAG laser wavelength at 530 nm with 0.61 J/cm2 energy flounce and various pluses repetition rate 350-500. The integrating of Ag core&Au shell configurations in n-type of bare PN Si junction was accomplished via pluses laser illumination of bare PN junction substrate. The photovoltaic results of formed solar cells showed strong dependence on Au shell thickness. Tangible enhancement was observed in the performance of bare Si solar cells after inserting core–shell configuration with specific shell thickness owning to the broadband absorption of plasmonics nanoparticles and the high values of specific surface area.