Plasmonic enhancement in hybrid organic/Si heterojunction solar cells enabled by embedded gold nanoparticles

We investigate the incorporation of gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) into poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)/polystyrenesulfonate for organic/Si heterojunction hybrid solar cells. The incorporation of Au NPs can enhance the short-circuit current density (Jsc), consequently, leading to a higher power conversion efficiency (PCE). The hybrid devices incorporating Au NPs with optimized size achieve a PCE of over 12.9% with about 10% enhancement of the Jsc compared with that of reference ones. Au NPs with different sizes are incorporated to explore the mechanism for the enhanced device performance. According to the detailed experimental characterization and numerical simulation results, the increased PCE is attributed to the light scattering and the local electromagnetic field enhancement, which is originated from the excitation of the localized surface plasmon resonance of Au NPs.