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Polycrystalline Silicon Thin-film Solar cells with Plasmonic-enhanced Light-trapping
Published on: July 2, 2012
Hybrid silicon nanocone-polymer solar cells
Sangmoo Jeong1, Erik C Garnett, Shuang Wang
1Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, United States.
Nano Letters
|May 2, 2012
Summary
Hybrid silicon/organic solar cells utilize silicon nanocones and conductive polymers for low-cost, efficient photovoltaic devices. This approach achieves over 11% power conversion efficiency with potential for near-theoretical performance.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Renewable Energy
Background:
- Hybrid solar cells offer a low-cost alternative to traditional silicon photovoltaics.
- Schottky junctions can be formed at low temperatures using solution processes for silicon/organic materials.
Purpose of the Study:
- To demonstrate a hybrid solar cell using silicon nanocones and conductive polymer.
- To optimize nanocone structure for enhanced photovoltaic performance.
Main Methods:
- Fabrication of hybrid solar cells using silicon nanocones and conductive polymer via spin-coating.
- Characterization of nanocone structure, surface coverage, antireflection, and light trapping properties.
- Simulation studies to determine optimal nanocone structures for performance.
Main Results:
- Optimal nanocone aspect ratio (<2) ensured conformal polymer coverage, antireflection, and light trapping.
- Uniform heterojunctions led to enhanced light absorption and power conversion efficiency >11%.
- Simulations predicted short-circuit current density up to 39.1 mA/cm(2) for 10 μm thick cells.
Conclusions:
- Hybrid silicon nanocone/polymer solar cells are a promising, economically viable energy solution.
- Thin materials and inexpensive processing contribute to the cost-effectiveness.
- Achieved efficiencies are close to the theoretical limit for silicon solar cells.
