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Plasmonic thin-film solar cells

Albert Polman
Center for Nanophotonics FOM-Institute AMOLF Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Ewold Verhagen, Maarten Hebbink Claire van Lare, Rene de Waele Marc Verschuuren Ruud Schropp Hongbo Li
AMOLF Utrecht University Philips Research UNSW ANU

Harry Atwater Vivian Ferry

CALTECH

Kylie Catchpole Fiona Beck Suddha Mokapati

Solar irradiance on earth

Black dots: area of solar panels needed to generate all of the worlds energy
assuming 8% efficient photovoltaics

Light is poorly absorbed in a thin-film solar cell

Solar spectrum absorbed in 2 m thick Si

Materials resources are limited


Relative abundance of elements vs. atomic nr. Requirements to construct 1 TW of PV with optically thick cells at 15% efficiency Solutions: 1) Earth Abundant Semiconductors (Si,Cu2O, Zn3P2, FeS2) 2) Enhance Light Absorption/reduce semiconductor volume
from P.H. Stauffer et al, Rare Earth Elements Critical Resources for High Technology, USGS (2002)

Light trapping by surface plasmons


Metal nanoparticle surface coatings Textured metal backcontacts

Light scattering
Rayleigh scattering from point dipole Scattering from point dipole above a substrate

4 % Preferential

scattering into high-index substrate

96 %

See, e.g.: J. Mertz, JOSA-B 17, 1906 (2000)

Light trapping using particle plasmons

fair fsubs f subs

Goal: Increased efficiency - IR absorption (higher Isc) - carrier collection (higher Voc) and/or Reduced thickness (=cost)

Metal nanoparticle scattering


Cross section > 1 All light captured and scattered into substrate (=AR coating)

From point dipole to particle plasmon


96 %
1 Fraction scattered into substrate 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0 500

FDTD calculations

dipole cylinder hemisphere sphere 100nm sphere 150nm 550 600 650 700 Wavelength (nm) 750 800

Fraction scattered into substrate highest for cylinder & hemisphere:strongest near-field coupling Ohmic damping V, scattering V2, Tradeoff: larger size more scattering, but lower coupling Kylie Catchpole Appl. Phys. Lett. 93, 191113 (2008), Opt. Expr. 16, 21793 (2008)

Scattering cross-section varies with dielectric spacer


scat normalized to particle area
14 12 10 Qscat, Qsubs 8 6 4 2 0 500 600 10nm 10 nm 700 800 wavelength (nm) 900 1000

Larger spacing: Interference in driving field

30 nm

30nm

tot sub

But: lower coupling fraction


(+ local density of states variation modifies albedo)

Kylie Catchpole Appl. Phys. Lett. 93, 191113 (2008), Opt. Expr. 16, 21793 (2008)

Maximum path length enhancement


Geometric series
Path length length enhancement maximum path enhancement
horizontal dipole 100 Lambertian hemisphere

fair fsubs f subs

30 x
10 sphere 100nm sphere 150nm

cylinder

(A=0.90)

Highest path length enhancement for cylinder and hemisphere

(A=0.95)
1 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 fraction into substrate 1

Fraction scattered into substrate

Kylie Catchpole Appl. Phys. Lett. 93, 191113 (2008), Opt. Expr. 16, 21793 (2008)

Optical absorption (1-R-T) in Si wafers


Integrating sphere

30 nm 100 m

c-Si
SiO2

SiO2 Si3N4 TiO2

c-Si

Si3N4 Ref. TiO2

Ref. Strongly enhanced near-IR absorption egineered by dielectric spacer

TiO2

AR effect, interference for shorter wavelength + redshift

Si3N4 SiO2

Kylie Catchpole, Fiona Beck J. Appl. Phys. 105, 114310 (2009)

Photocurrent, external quantum efficiency

front

SiO2 TiO2

back

back front
SiO2 SiO2 Si3N4 TiO2 Si3N4

Kylie Catchpole, Fiona Beck J. Appl. Phys. 105, 114310 (2009)

Fabrication of large-area metal nanopatterns


Evaporation and annealing (ANU) (a) Porous alumina template (CALTECH) (b)

(c)

(d)

Substrate conformal imprint lithography (SCIL) - Philips

The Economist January 20, 2009

Light trapping by surface plasmons


Metal nanoparticle surface coatings Textured metal backcontacts

Amorphous Si thin-film solar cell fabrication steps

Soft-imprint by Verschuuren et al. Hot-wire a-Si deposition by Schropp et al.

Vivian Ferry, Marc Verschuuren Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, in press (2009)

Ag contact after overcoating imprinted sol-gel

513 nm pitch 225 nm diameter 240 nm deep printed over 6 wafer

500nm

Vivian Ferry, Marc Verschuuren Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, in press (2009)

Cross section after cell fabrication


ITO (AR coating + top contact) 80 nm p-a-Si:H 20 nm i-a-Si:H 500 nm n-a-Si:H 20 nm ZnO 100 nm Ag 200 nm imprint layer 150 nm

1m

Vivian Ferry, Marc Verschuuren Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, in press (2009)

Current-Voltage measurements

Vivian Ferry, Marc Verschuuren Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, in press (2009)

Measured spectral response

51% increase in photocurrent from 600 800 nm no decrease in performance from 400-600 nm

Vivian Ferry, Marc Verschuuren Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, in press (2009)

Comparing with full-field EM simulations

Calculation of light absorption using finite-difference time-domain simulation Carrier collection assumed depth independent

Vivian Ferry, Marc Verschuuren Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, in press (2009)

Larger improvement possible with other patterns


Calculated photocurrent Enhancement (=600 nm)

Optimum: depth = 140 nm diameter = 370 nm enhancement = 54%

Vivian Ferry, Marc Verschuuren Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, in press (2009)

Light trapping by surface plasmons


Metal nanoparticle surface coatings Textured metal backcontacts

Other plasmonic solar cell designs

Ewold Verhagen Optics Express 17, 14586 (2009)

Needed: 3 Ph.D. students / post-docs

For details/references visit: www.erbium.nl

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