Plasmonic silicon solar cell comprised of aluminum nanoparticles: Effect of nanoparticles' self-limiting native oxide shell on optical and electrical properties

The aluminum nanoparticles' (Al NPs) morphology is optimized initially, for maximum light confinement into a silicon substrate. With self-limiting native oxide shell on the Al NPs after ageing, the maximum photocurrent enhancement (from 26.89 to 29.21 mA/cm(2)) from a silicon solar cell is observed as compared to the bare cell, in surface plasmon resonance and off-resonance regions due to improved light forward scattering, with no occurrence of Fano resonances. Related to the electrical properties of the plasmonic device, an increase in fill factor (from 56.11 to 62.58) and a decrease in series resistance (from 1.80 X to 1.24 X) are also observed after the oxide layer formation on Al NPs. The passive partial dielectric oxide layer at the interface helped in electrical passivation by reducing lateral resistance to current flow along the plane of the interface. A finite-element method is also adapted to calculate spatial and angular radiative dipole field distributions for the experimentally optimized Al NPs' size on a silicon substrate, without and with oxide inclusion in NPs for explaining the plasmonic device performance enhancement. With oxide inclusion, Al NPs' dipole field exhibited a large shift towards a silicon due to the modified dielectric environment as compared to without oxide. Bruggeman effective medium theory (for dielectric response) is also used to explain the results with the modification in peak radiative power, spectral field distribution, and spatial and angular radiative dipole field distributions of Al NPs with oxide inclusion in Al. Published by AIP Publishing.