Influence of Ag NPs shape and metal oxide shell embedded in the active layer of Si-based hybrid plasmonic solar cells on device efficiency

Abstract In this research, via embedding the plasmonic metallic nanostructure of dome shape Ag coated with MoO 3 in the active layer of a hybrid Si solar cell, the device efficiency significantly improved. The effect of Ag nanostructures shape and metal oxide coated material implanted in Poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene:Poly (styrenesulfonate)/c-Si (PEDOT:PSS) as an active layer of hybrid solar cells (HSC) on improvements of photocurrent was extensively investigated. HSC with an Ag nanodome shape and MoO 3 shell showed an open circuit voltage (V oc ) of 0.88 V, an electrical short circuit current density (J sc ) of 38.42 mA cm −2 , and a fill factor (FF) of 0.82. The energy conversion efficiency was considerably increased from 15.60% for HSC solar cells having nanopyramid Ag with SiO 2 shell to 28.02% for nanodome Ag with MoO 3 shell. The localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) phenomenon, photogenerated charge recombination, and incident photon scattering and absorption behavior all contribute to this improvement.