Low-cost plasmonic solar cells prepared by chemical spray pyrolysis

Erki Kärber; Atanas Katerski; Ilona Oja Acik; Valdek Mikli; Arvo Mere; Ilmo Sildos; Malle Krunks

doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.249

Low-cost plasmonic solar cells prepared by chemical spray pyrolysis

Beilstein J Nanotechnol. 2014 Dec 12:5:2398-402. doi: 10.3762/bjnano.5.249. eCollection 2014.

Authors

Erki Kärber¹, Atanas Katerski¹, Ilona Oja Acik¹, Valdek Mikli², Arvo Mere¹, Ilmo Sildos³, Malle Krunks¹

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory of Thin Film Chemical Technologies, Department of Materials Science, Tallinn University of Technology, Ehitajate tee 5, 19086 Tallinn, Estonia.
² Chair of Semiconductor Materials Technology, Department of Materials Science Tallinn University of Technology, Ehitajate tee 5, 19086 Tallinn, Estonia.
³ Institute of Physics, University of Tartu, Riia 142, 51014, Tartu, Estonia.

Abstract

Solar cells consisting of an extremely thin In2S3/CuInS2 buffer/absorber layer uniformly covering planar ZnO were prepared entirely by chemical spray pyrolysis. Au nanoparticles (Au-NPs) were formed via thermal decomposition of a gold(III) chloride trihydrate (HAuCl4·3H2O) precursor by spraying 2 mmol/L of the aqueous precursor solution onto a substrate held at 260 °C. Current-voltage scans and external quantum efficiency spectra were used to evaluate the solar cell performance. This work investigates the effect of the location of the Au-NP layer deposition (front side vs rear side) in the solar cell and the effect of varying the volume (2.5-10 mL) of the sprayed Au precursor solution. A 63% increase (from 4.6 to 7.5 mA/cm(2)) of the short-circuit current density was observed when 2.5 mL of the precursor solution was deposited onto the rear side of the solar cell.

Keywords: Au nanoparticles; chemical spray pyrolysis; extremely thin absorber; plasmon resonance; solar cell.