Efficiency enhancement of screen-printed multicrystalline silicon solar cells by integrating gold nanoparticles via a dip coating process

Multicrystalline silicon solar cells play an increasingly important role in the world photovoltaic market. Boosting the comparatively low energy conversion efficiency of multicrystalline silicon solar cells is of great academic and industrial significance. In this paper, Au nanoparticles of an optimized size, synthesized by the iterative seeding method, were integrated onto industrially available surface-textured multicrystalline silicon solar cells via a dip coating method. Enhanced performance of the light absorption, the external quantum efficiency and the energy conversion efficiency were consistently demonstrated, resulting from the light scattering by the sized-tailored Au nanoparticles placed on the front surface of the solar cells, particularly in the spectral range from 800 to 1200 nm, an enhancement of the external quantum efficiency by more than 11% near lambda = 1150 nm and the short-circuit current by 0.93% were both observed. As a result, an increase in the energy conversion efficiency up to 1.97% under the standard testing conditions (25 degrees C, global air mass 1.5 spectrum, 1000 Wm(-2)) was achieved. This study opens new perspectives for plasmonic nanoparticle applications for photon management in multicrystalline silicon solar cells. (C) 2012 Optical Society of America