Plasmonic Core-Shell Gold Nanoparticle Enhanced Optical Absorption In Photovoltaic Devices

The enhancement effect of optical absorption with core-shell gold nanoparticles on the surface of wafer-based silicon photovoltaic devices has been studied. The obvious enhanced photocurrent is observed, especially when the wavelength is above 800 nm, and the highest enhancement value is about 14% around the wavelength of 1100 nm. The simulation results indicate that the presence of dielectric coating shell could improve the surface plasmon based scattering effect at longer wavelength range, which provides a good understanding of the experiment results. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3559225]