Cold substrate method to prepare plasmonic Ag nanoparticle: deposition, characterization, application in solar cell (original) (raw)
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Solar Energy, 2017
This paper shows an experimental attempt to approach plasmonic structure of silver nanoparticles (NPs) for photovoltaic application optimized previously for front side of thin film silicon solar cells. For that purpose the synthesis of high concentration of 100 and 140 nm Ag nanoparticles suspensions and layer-by-layer deposition method was applied. The results of electrical and optical studies of silicon solar cells with Ag nanoparticles as well as the microstructure of nanoparticles assemblies examined by SEM are presented. The results of these measurements are compared with theoretically predicted ones for optimized case and are the basis for further simulation analysis of the influence of the microstructure of actual nanoparticles assemblies. The simulations cover particles size distribution, the presence of agglomerates and arrangement. The results of these simulations show that the microstructure parameters decide on the plasmonic properties leading to the limited cell performance enhancement. Here we present more than 12% increase of short circuit current density and perspectives for further improvement. The outcomes of these studies have a general character and should be considered for optimization of other plasmonic structures used in photovoltaic and optoelectronic devices.
Optics Express, 2013
The effects of substrates with technological interest for solar cell industry are examined on the plasmonic properties of Ag nanoparticles fabricated by dewetting technique. Both surface matching (boundary element) and propagator (finite difference time domain) methods are used in numerical simulations to describe plasmonic properties and to interpret experimental data. The uncertainty on the locations of nanoparticles by the substrate in experiment is explained by the simulations of various Ag nanoparticle configurations. The change in plasmon resonance due to the location of nanoparticles with respect to the substrate, interactions among them, their shapes, and sizes as well as dielectric properties of substrate are discussed theoretically and implications of these for the experiment are deliberated.
Characterization of Ag Nanocrystals for use in Solar Cell Applications
MRS Proceedings, 2009
Ag nanocrystals made by chemical synthesis have been used in solar cell applications as a part of light trapping. The shape, crystal structure, defects and composition of these nanocrystals have been studied in detail. Samples with different ratios of silver solution (AgNO 3 ) and reductant (NaBH4) were made, and a difference in nanocrystal size was observed. HRTEM and diffraction patterns showed that the samples contained mostly Ag nanocrystals, and some of them contained Ag 2 O nanocrystals as well. Some nanocrystals contained large defects, mostly twinning, which induced facets on the nanocrystal surface.
Noble metal nano-structures such as Ag, Cu, Au are used commonly to increase power conversion efficiency of the solar cell by using their surface plasmons. The plasmonic metal nanoparticles of Ag among others that have strong LSPR in near UV range. They increase photon absorbance via embedding in the active semiconductor of the solar cell. Thin films of Ag are grown in the desired particle size and interparticle distance easily and at low cost by PLD technique. Ag nanoparticle thin films were grown on micro slide glass at 25-36 mJ laser pulse energies under by PLD using ns-Nd:YAG laser. The result of this work have been presented by carrying out UV-VIS and AFM analysis. It was concluded that a laser energy increases, the density and size of Ag-NPs arriving on the substrate increases, and the interparticle distance was decreases. Therefore, LSPR wavelength shifts towards to longer wavelength region.
The preparation of thin film silicon solar cells containing Ag nanoparticles is reported in this article. Ag nanoparticles were deposited on fluorine doped tin oxide coated glass substrates by the evaporation and condensation method. a-Si:H solar cells were deposited on these substrates by cluster type plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition. We discuss the double textured surface effect with respect to both the surface morphology of the substrate and the plasmonic effect of the Ag nanoparticles. Ag nanoparticles of various sizes from 10 to 100 nm were deposited. The haze values of the Ag embedded samples increased with increasing particle size whereas the optical transmittance decreased at the same conditions. The solar cell with the 30 nm size Ag nanoparticles showed a short circuit current density of 12.97 mA/cm 2 , which is 0.53 mA/cm 2 higher than that of the reference solar cell without Ag nanoparticles, and the highest quantum efficiency for wavelengths from 550 to 800 nm. When 30 nm size nanoparticles were employed, the conversion efficiency of the solar cell was increased from 6.195% to 6.696%. This study reports the application of the scattering effect of Ag nanoparticles for the improvement of the conversion efficiency of amorphous silicon solar cells.
Effect of surface type on structural and optical properties of Ag nanoparticles formed by dewetting
Optics Express, 2013
Integration of an array of Ag nanoparticles in solar cells is expected to increase light trapping through field enhancement and plasmonic scattering. Requirement of Ag nanoparticle decoration of cell surfaces or interfaces at the macro-scale, calls for a self-organized fabrication method such as thermal dewetting. Optical properties of a 2D array of Ag nanoparticles are known to be very sensitive to their shape and size. We show that these parameters depend on the type of the substrate used. We observe that the average nanoparticle size decreases with increasing substrate thermal conductivity and nanoparticle size distribution broadens with increasing surface roughness.
International Journal of Current Research and Academic Review, 2017
Article Info This work reports the synthesized plasmonic silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs)by SILAR (successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction)technique on glass substrates with 5, 8, 11, 14 and 17 SILAR cycles and effect on the optical properties of the thin films (TFs). The absorbance data of the as-synthesized Ag-NPs thin films were obtained using UV-Vis (Ultraviolet visible) spectroscopy at room temperature in the wavelength range of 250nmto 900nm. The transmittance, absorption coefficient, optical bandgap, refractive index and extinction coefficient were experimentally measured. The absorption peaks of(450, 455, 470, 455, 500) nm, and optical energy band gaps of (2.20, 2.16, 2.12, 2.11, 1.84) eV with absorption coefficient approximately 10-12 cm-1 were identified for the SILAR cycles, which agree to a particular characteristics of the silver nanoparticles surface plasmon resonance band. The results showed a red shift from 450nm to 500nm by increasing the SILAR cycles from 5 to 17 cycles, which is attributed to coalescence of Ag nanoparticles at higher SILAR deposition cycles. An increase in the refractive index of the films from 1.55 to 2.51 observed, with approximate average value of 1.92, may be due to the optical properties of silver nanoparticles. This study revealed that Ag-NPs synthesized by SILAR technique gives good optical properties with excellent absorption bands in the visible region, which has potential applications in technology.
Structural and spectroscopic studies of thin film of silver nanoparticles
Applied Surface Science, 2011
We report the deposition of thin film of silver (Ag) nanoparticles by wet chemical method. The as-synthesized Ag nanoparticles have been characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), X-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), field emission transmission electron microscopy (FETEM) and high-resolution TEM (HRTEM), UV-vis spectroscopy and thermogravimetric-differential thermal analysis (TG-DTA) respectively. FESEM image indicates that the silver film prepared on the quartz substrate is smooth and dense. XRD pattern reveals the face-centered cubic (fcc) structure of silver nanoparticles. EDS spectrum indicates that samples are nearly stoichiometric. From TEM analysis, it is found that the size of high purity Ag nanoparticles is ranging from 10 to 20 nm with slight agglomeration. Absorption in UV-vis region by these nanoparticles is characterized by the features reported in the literature, namely, a possible Plasmon peak at ∼403 nm. Optical absorbance spectra analysis reveals that the Ag film has an indirect band structure with bandgap energy 3.88 eV. TGA/DTA studies revealed that a considerable weight loss occurs between 175 and 275 • C; and the reaction is exothermic.
2021
The growth mechanism of nanocolumnar silver thin film deposited on a smooth silicon substrate using electron beam evaporation process at an oblique angle was simulated with the Kinetic Monte Carlo method. Following the simulated silver nanostructured thin film, a further computational simulation was done using COMSOL for surface-enhanced Raman scattering effects. The simulation results were compared against corresponding experimental results, which demonstrated high agreement between simulation results and experimental data. It was found that as the incident deposition angle increased, the density of the Ag thin film significantly decreased and the surface roughness increased. When the incident deposition angle was at 75° and 85°, the resulting nanocolumnar structure was significantly tilted. For Ag thin films deposited at all investigated angles, surface-enhanced Raman scattering effects were observed. Particularly, the Ag nanocolumns deposited at 85° showed remarkable Surface-enha...
Effect of Ag nanoparticles integrated within antireflection coatings for solar cells
Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, 2013
The influence of the relative position of Ag metallic nanoparticles (Ag MNPs) embedded in a 100 nm SiOx Antireflection Coating (ARC) for specular polished c-Si substrates is studied. It is demonstrated that this Plasmonic ARC (PARC) can achieve lower average reflectivities than the optimised SiOx ARC. This has been done for different sizes of Ag nanoparticles. An alternative for PECVD to encapsulate Ag MNPs with SiOx is presented, avoiding the risk of metallic contamination in the reactor chamber as well as its effect on the size and shape of the self-aggregated Ag MNP. It is demonstrated, however, that this PARC is not suitable for silicon solar cells as a substitute for traditional ARC because it presents a high loss related with Fano destructive interference.