Performance enhancement of solar cells based on single-walled carbon nanotubes by Au nanoparticles

The efficiency enhancement of solar cells based on a single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) and Silicon (Si) heterojunction by gold (Au) nanoparticles has been studied. Our experimental results confirm that the density of Au nanoparticles plays a critical role in improving the performance of solar cell. With the optimum amount of Au nanoparticles on SWNTs, the obvious enhanced photocurrent is observed compared with the case without Au decoration due to the decrease of series resistance. However, the high density of Au nanoparticles will decrease the shunt resistance between Si and SWNTs, which leads to the performance degradation of solar cell. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4739427]