31st European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition

EFFECT OF Ag NANOPARTICLES EMBEDDED AZO/ZnO MULTILAYERS AS FRONT TCO ON THE QE

SPECTRA OF THE a-Si/a-Si DOUBLE TANDEM SOLAR CELLS
Aparajita Mandal*1, Arindam Kole1, Tushar Ghosh2, Durga Basak2 and Partha Chaudhuri1
1Energy Research Unit, 2 Department of Solid State Physics, Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science
Kolkata 700032, India; *eram@iacs.res.in

ABSTRACT: A series of a-Si/a-Si double tandem solar cells (PSCs) have been fabricated over the Al:ZnO (~210 nm)
/Ag nano particles (~50 nm lateral dimension)/ZnO (tc) multilayers working as front TCOs with tc varying from ~5
nm to ~50 nm and compared with a reference double tandem solar cell (RSC) deposited on an AZO substrate.
Measurement of the external quantum efficiency (EQE) of the front cell in each PSC shows a large enhancement in
the wavelength range (L): 550 nm to 725 nm together with a poor EQE at shorter wavelength range (S) < 550 nm
in comparison to the front cell EQE of the RSC. Theoretical modeling of the solar cell structure based on finite
difference time domain method shows surface plasmon resonance of Ag capped with ZnO occurring around 550 nm.
A PL emission band above 530 nm associated with the oxygen related defect in ZnO has been correlated with the
enhanced EQE for the range L. The absorption by the Ag nano particles and the recombination at the front TCO/aSi:H interface degrades the EQE over S range. Existence of an optimum value of ZnO thickness has been proposed
to improve the performance of the solar cells.
Keywords: TCO Transparent Conducting Oxides, Nanoparticles, Thin Film Solar Cell, a-Si:H, FDTD simulation.
1

INTRODUCTION

injection still remains unknown.

The perspective of the present work is to study the
spectral dependence of the photo current within a thin
hydrogenated amorphous Si (a-Si:H) absorber layer
influenced by the plasmonic effect from the small Ag
nano particles (NPs) embedded in the front transparent
conducting oxide (TCO) of the same. We have fabricated
a series of a-Si:H/a-Si:H double tandem solar cells
(DTSCs) over different Ag embedded multilayer TCO
substrates. The structure of the multilayer substrate is
Glass/Al:ZnO/Ag NPs/ZnO. For the DTSCs, the
thickness (tc) of the ZnO capping layer which actually
separates the SCs and the Ag NPs, was chosen to vary
from 5 nm to 50 nm.
One of our motivations for fabricating double tandem
structure is to utilize the opportunity to make a thin
absorber layer for the front cell (~ 85 nm). Such small
absorber layer in a p-i-n single junction fails to withstand
the sharp potential drop across the junction resulting in a
poor shunt resistance.
Utilizing the Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD)
method, the SP behavior of the Ag NPs when embedded
within the front TCO are simulated and correlated with
the experimentally obtained external quantum efficiency
(EQE) spectra of the DTSCs.

The plasmon resonance in metal nanostructures to

trap light and create charge carriers in a nearby
semiconductor material is considered to be of great
benefit for ultra-thin solar cells (SCs) where the
fundamental requirement is to achieve maximum
absorption of the solar radiation even by using very thin
absorber material [1,2]. Depending upon the size of the
nanostructures, it mainly offers two advantages: (i)
enhanced forward scattering which reflects their far field
characteristics [3-5] and (ii) strong near field light
concentration in the vicinity of the nanostructures [6],
[1]. The forward scattered light in process (i) couples to
the available waveguide/photonic modes of the
semiconductor and thereby increases the effective path
length of the light within the absorber layer [7]. The near
field effect, on the other hand, enhances the electron-hole
pair generation in the close proximity to the metal by the
locally amplified non propagating part of the scattered
electric field [8]. However, the interface states generated
at the metal- semiconductor contact act as recombination
centers and reduce the lifetime of the photo generated
carriers in the semiconductor [1]. Direct metalsemiconductor contact should therefore be avoided.
Addition of a dielectric buffer layer between the metal
nanostructures and the semiconductor material can
reduce these interface states but at the cost of near field
induced absorption in the semiconductor material [9, 10].
Other possible routes for exploiting the near field effect
for energy harvesting are the plasmon induced resonant
energy transfer (PIRET) and the hot electron injection to
the semiconductor leading to a significant charge carrier
generation and/or separation [11,12] within the
semiconducting material. In PIRET, the spectral overlap
should exist between the localized surface plasmon
resonance (LSPR) of the metal and the absorption band
of the semiconductor located spatially within the plasmon
near field. In the process of hot carrier injection, decay of
surface plasmon (SP) to a single electron hole pair creates
hot electrons inside the metal. The hot electrons can
overcome the Schottky barrier of the metalsemiconductor leading to a direct electron transfer to the
semiconductor. However, the individual existence of
these two mechanisms viz. PIRET and hot electron

EXPERIMENTAL METHOD

The step by step fabrication sequence of the various

layers of the a-Si:H based double tandem solar cells are
discussed below. I) At first, deposition of the Al:ZnO
(AZO) layer of thickness ~ 210 nm over glass substrate
by rf magnetron sputtering method has been carried out.
In short, a multilayered film of AZO and Zn layer of
thicknesses ~ 55 nm and ~15 nm respectively were
grown alternatively for three times. Then the layers were
annealed at 550 C in pure Ar atmosphere for 1 hour. The
details of the growth condition of the film have been
described elsewhere [13]. II) Evaporation of a thin Ag
film has been done over the AZO by vacuum thermal
evaporation method at a pressure of 10-6 Pa. The
thickness of the Ag precursor film was around 1 nm as
determined from a quartz crystal oscillator with an error

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for the 5x5 m area are also indicated in each figure.

bar of 1.5 nm arising due to the difference in the

angular orientation of the substrate with respect to the
oscillator. The film was subsequently annealed at 300C
for 1 hr. under high vacuum to form Ag NPs. III) A thin
ZnO layer was then deposited by rf magnetron sputtering
method on the Ag NPs over Ag/AZO substrates at 300C,
the other growth conditions remaining the same as those
of the deposition of AZO film mentioned in step (I). Four
such AZO/Ag NPs/ZnO multilayers were prepared with
the ZnO capping layer thicknesses (tc) of 5 nm, 15 nm, 25
nm and 50 nm respectively. IV) A series of a-Si:H/aSi:H double tandem solar cells (DTSCs) which will be
refered as PSC-n (n=1-4) were fabricated over the
AZO/Ag NPs/ZnO multilayer TCOs having tc of 5 nm,
15 nm, 25 nm and 50 nm respectively in a plasma
enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) system. A
bare (without Ag NPs) AZO substrate has been used for
the standard/reference DTSC which will be referred as
RSC-1. Each DTSC consisted of layers of optimized ptype a-SiC:H (p) intrinsic a-Si:H (i) and n-type a-Si:H (n)
with the structure p(5)-i(85)-n(8)/p(5)-i(300)-n(25), the
thickness (in nm) of the layers being given in the
parentheses adjacent to the layers. Two more DTSCs,
RSC-2 and PSC-5 were also fabricated over AZO/ZnO30 nm multilayer (without Ag NPs) and the AZO/Ag unannealed substrates respectively in a similar
configuration as mentioned above for comparison. The
back contact of each solar cells was completed by
vacuum evaporation of Al film. The effective area of
each solar cell is 1 cm2.
In order to estimate the size of the Ag NPs
independent of the AZO grains we deposited Ag films
with the same thickness of 1 nm (1.5 nm) over glass
substrates and performed the similar annealing step as
III). The Ag NPs on glass substrates were observed by
Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM
by JEOL JSM-6700 F electron microscope).
The TCO substrates were characterized by the
Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM by Vecco DICP2 AP100) and FE-SEM. The electrical properties of the same
were measured in a four point probe configuration by
Van Der Pauw method. The EQE of the DTSCs was
obtained over the wavelength () range 340 nm - 800 nm
using a m monochromator with respect to a calibrated
Si photo diode. For the front and back cell EQE
measurements, we used dc bias light through appropriate
filters. The current voltage characteristics (I-V) of the
DTSCs have been measured at 25C under a double
source Class A solar simulator (WACOM) with AM1.5G
filter set using a VLSI standard reference cell. The
measurement uncertainty associated with the short circuit
current densities is less than 3%.

Fig. 1 The 2 dimensional surface morphology obtained

from AFM imaging of the (a) bare AZO (without Ag
NPs), (b) AZO/Ag NPs and (c) AZO/Ag NPs/ZnO-25 nm
multilayer deposited over glass substrate. Corresponding
RMS roughness values (Rrms) are also indicated.
As the AZO surface is not smooth and itself consists
of small sized grains, it is difficult to identify the Ag NPs
from Fig. 1. The SEM image of the un-annealed Ag film
and the Ag NPs formed over glass substrates after
annealing is shown in the Fig. 2 (a) and (b) respectively.
We estimate the average lateral size of the Ag NPs to be
around 50 nm from the size histogram calculated from
Fig. 2(b) as shown at the inset of the same. However, in
case of the formation of Ag NPs over AZO substrate, the
grain boundary of AZO can influence the growth
mechanism and limit the surface diffusion of Ag islands
during the film deposition and subsequent annealing
process [14].

Fig. 2 SEM images of the (a) un-annealed and (b)

annealed Ag film of mass thickness ~ 1nm 1.5 nm
deposited over glass substrate. Inset of (b) shows the size
histogram of the Ag NPs formed after vacuum annealing.
Annealing temperature is 300C for 1 hr.
The comparison of the transmission spectra for the
wavelength range of 300 nm- 800 nm of the bare AZO
substrate and the multilayer TCOs are presented in Fig. 3.

RESULTS

Fig. 1(a) to (c) show the 2 dimensional surface

morphologies of the bare AZO, AZO after the formation
of Ag NPs over it (AZO/Ag NPs) and a typical multilayer
TCO substrate having configuration: AZO/Ag NPs/ZnO25 nm deposited on glass respectively. The changes in
the morphology of the AZO surface after the Ag NPs
formation are clearly visible in Fig. 1(b). The surface
morphology in Fig. 1(c) seems to be alike to that of the
bare AZO substrate (Fig. 1(a)) and the ZnO capping layer
appears to conformally coat the Ag NPs. The
corresponding RMS roughness (Rrms) values calculated

Fig. 3 Comparison of transmittance spectra of the

multilayer TCO substrates and the bare AZO substrate.
As evident from this figure, all the samples exhibit good
optical transmittance of above 75% in the visible range
(400-800 nm). Also the interference fringes resulting
from the interaction between the incident and reflected

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light from the individual layer interfaces are clearly

noticeable (Fig. 3). A drop in the transmittance can be
observed for all the multilayer TCOs compared to the
bare AZO substrate for wavelengths greater than 600 nm
may be due to the addition of the ZnO capping layer.
The electrical properties of the multilayer TCOs
obtained from the Hall measurement are listed in table I.
It suggests that the inclusion of Ag NPs did not
significantly alter the electrical parameters of the
multilayers compared to the bare AZO substrate,
however, a significant drop in the mobility can be
observed with the increase in the ZnO capping layer
thickness, as expected.

Clearly, a significant increase in the photo response in the

front cell for the PSC-1 to PSC-4 in the longer
wavelength range (L) of 550 nm to 725 nm is observed
whereas the RSC-1 and RSC-2 exhibit weak EQE for that
range. The EQE of PSC-5 exhibits similar trend to that of
the RSC-1 and RSC-2 except for an overall reduction in
value. A decrease in the front cell EQE value for the
PSC-4 to PSC-1 is however apparent at shorter
wavelength range (s) of less than 550 nm than that of
RSC-1or RSC-2. The EQE spectra for the back cell of PSC-4 to P-SC-1 was observed to have a small but distinct
overall shift towards longer wavelengths with respect to
R-SC-1 (figure 4(b)).
The comparison of different electrical parameters for
the PSC-4 to PSC-1 normalized with respect to the RSC1 is presented in Fig. 5. An overall reduction in the
electrical performance is apparent for all the PSCs except
for a slight increase (3.5%) in the Jsc value for the PSC-4
compared to that of the reference cell RSC-1.

Table I: Results from the Hall measurement of the TCOs

Substrates
Carrier concentration Mobility Resistivity
AZO
9.2x1020
33.7
2.02x10-4
20
AZO/ZnO-30 nm
4.1 x10
17.6
8.7 x10-4
AZO/Ag NPs/
4.6 x1020
20.4
6.7 x10-4
ZnO-15 nm
AZO/Ag NPs/
3.9 x1020
19.6
8.1 x10-4
ZnO-25nm
AZO/Ag NPs /
3.4 x1020
9.2
1.9 x10-3
ZnO-50nm
The AZO was prepared at 550C. Therefore the
annealing step (step III) at lower temperature (300C) is
not expected to change the properties of the base AZO
substrate significantly as can be inferred from table I,
although there may be some molecular inter-diffusion
across the interface.
Fig. 4(a) and (b) compares the EQE spectra of the
front and back cell respectively for the DTSCs grown on
bare AZO and the different multilayer TCO substrates.

Fig. 5 Comparison of the electrical parameters of the

PSC-n (n= 1-4). Numbers 1 to 4 indicating the value of n.
Each value is normalized to that of the reference cell
RSC-1 deposited on bare AZO substrate.
In Fig. 6, the I-V characteristics of the PSC-4 and the
RSC-1 has been presented.

Fig. 6 The I-V characteristics of the PSC-4 deposited on

the AZO/Ag NPs/ZnO-50 nm multilayer substrate and
RSC-1, the reference cell, deposited on bare AZO.

DISCUSSION

The EQE spectra of all the DTSCs (Fig. 4) and the

I-V parameters (Fig. 5) for the PSCn (n = 1-4) suggest
that the presence of Ag NPs capped with a ZnO layer on
the front TCO affect the overall performance PSCs. The
application of a thin ZnO capping layer over the AZO
might has improved the EQE of the RSC-2 (Fig. 4)
slightly with respect to the RSC-1, however, the distinct
enhancement for the range of L as observed for P-SCn
(n=1 to 4) is absent in its EQE response. It confirms that
the application of only the thin ZnO layer over AZO did
not contribute to the mechanism for enhancement of EQE

Fig. 4 The EQE for the (a) front and the (b) back cell of
the a-Si:H/a-Si:H double tandem solar cells deposited on
different TCO substrates. Each solar cells are represented
by the TCO over which they were grown. Area under the
EQE curve of the reference cell deposited on bare AZO
substrate (RSC-1) has been filled with color for better
visual
comparison.

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for the range L. Moreover, in the case of the PSC-5

which does not have the ZnO capping layer above the Ag
NPs, no enhancement in the front cell EQE is observed
(Fig. 4(a)). This further confims that only the presence of
Ag NPs did not contribute in the EQE enhancement.
Therefore, from the above results it is clear that the
enhanced EQE for front cell for the range L in the
PSCn (n= 1 to 4) has been achieved whenever the
combination of Ag NPs and ZnO capping layer is
present.
Investigations on the photon energy conversion due
to enhanced photoluminescence (PL) via LSPR in the Ag
nanostructures embedded ZnO layer have recently been
carried out by a number of authors [15-18]. Usually, the
PL spectra of ZnO are composed of two emission bands
in the UV/visible range under the above band-edge
excitation. The bare ZnO film exhibits a band edge
emission around 376 nm and an oxygen-vacancy related
emission at around 530 nm [19]. Several authors
suggested that the PL emission from the ZnO can be
influenced by the enhanced electromagnetic field, LSP
radiative scattering, and nonradiative absorption
associated with the Ag NPs embedded within the ZnO
[15-16], [18], [20]. If the position of the ZnO exciton
peak is close to the SPR wavelength of Ag NPs, resonant
coupling between Ag SP and the emission from ZnO is
possible in a metal-semiconductor hetero-junction due to
the PIRET process as previously discussed in section 1
[11-12]. When LSP resonance scattering dominates over
the absorption in the Ag NPs, the LSP energy can be
recovered to free space emission, leading to the
enhancement of light emission. Otherwise, light emission
will be attenuated due to nonradiative dissipation of LSP
absorption at the NPs itself [20].
Furthermore, PIRET [12] at the Ag/ZnO interface by
the light absorption and LSPR excitation in the Ag
nanostructures is another possible route to enhance the
PL from ZnO. Keeping in mind the electron affinity of
Ag (~4.26 eV) and ZnO (~4.3 eV), electrons may easily
be injected to the conduction band of the ZnO from the
Ag/ZnO interface near the LSPR of the embedded Ag
NPs [13]. This would consequently enhance the radiative
recombination rate of the ZnO due to the supply of
electrons from Ag. The excess electrons from the
conduction band of the ZnO near the interface may then
relax radiatively to the valence band either directly or via
the oxygen vacancies. Direct recombination can increase
the UV emission corresponding to the band gap of the
ZnO and the indirect recombination via the oxygen
vacancies can enhance the visible emission around 530
nm.
From the transmittance spectra presneted in Fig. 3, it
is difficult to distinguish the LSPR wavelength from the
drop in the transmittance [14] owing to the occurrence of
the interference fringes around the wavelengths greater
than 404 nm. Numerical simulations were carried out
utilizing 3 dimensional FDTD method [21] to estimate
the SPR wavelength of the Ag NPs when embedded
within the ZnO layer. We have considered the Ag NPs as
spheres with the diameter same as their lateral dimension
(50 nm) to mimic the experimentally observed pattern in
a simplistic way. The refractive index data for ZnO was
taken from the SOPRA database [22].To model the Ag
NPs we calculated the size corrected permittivity values
considering the surface scattering of electrons at the
boundaries of the Ag NPs of radius 25 nm [23]. Fig. 7
plots the simulated scattering/absorption cross section of

a single spherical Ag NP (2R=50 nm, R being radius)

embedded within the ZnO layer as a function of
wavelength from 400 nm to 800 nm. Fig. 7 clearly
indicates the position of the LSPR wavelength around
550 nm where a peak in the scattering/absorption cross
section (scat/abs) was observed. Also the scattering is
higher than the absorption near the SPR wavelength. At
this point, we propose that the enhanced EQE for L
might
be
associated
with
the
enhanced
photoluminescence (PL) from the ZnO mediated by the
LSPR of the Ag NPs.

Fig. 7 Scattering and absorption cross section (scat/abs) as

a function of wavelength for a single spherical Ag NP
embedded within ZnO.
Next we simulate the electric field distribution (|E2|)
around the Ag NPs at front TCO while considering the
complete solar cell structure. The permitivity values of
AZO and ZnO are considered to be same to avoid
complexity for modeling the structure. The structure is
illuminated by a plane wave source of unity magnitute
from the negative Z direction. The structure was modeled
for non-interacting Ag NPs so that it can reflect the trend
of the microscopically observed pattern (Fig. 2(b)). The
mesh sizes in all three dimensions were considered to be
0.3 nm which assures a good resolution for modeling the
structure.
Fig. 8 present the spatial distribution of electric field
around the Ag NPs embedded in the front TCO with the
a-Si:H above (where only a part of the a-Si:H is shown)
corresponding to the DTSC structure of PSC-1 and PSC4 with ZnO capping layer thickness of 5 nm (8(a)-(b))
and 50 nm (8(c)-(d)). The electric fields were plotted for
two typical wavelengths of 550 nm and 451 nm from left
to right. Fig. 8(a) and (c) indicate a strong near field light
enhancement mostly in the ZnO capping layer at
wavelength of 550 nm. Whereas at shorter wavelengths
not only the near field light concentration effect is
comparatively less in magnitude than that of 550 nm,
most of the light is concentrated within the Ag NPs or at
the Ag/ZnO interface away from the a-Si:H layer i.e
towards the AZO substrate as can be seen from Fig. 8(b)
and (d). Similar observations can be made in case of tc=
15 nm and 25 nm (not shown here) corresponding to the
device structure of PSC-2 and PSC-3 respectively.
Additionally, from the simulation results it is observed
that the relative strengths of the near field light
concentration is different for different values of tc. The
loss of incident light due to absorption within the Ag NPs
appears to be more pronounced for thicker ZnO capping
layer (Fig. 8(b) and (d)). On the other hand, the intensity
of PL emission from ZnO is directly proportional to the
amount or thickness of the ZnO layer. Furthermore,
Cheng et al. demonstrated that the PL intensity may
decrease with increase in tc beyond a certain thickness of

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the ZnO layer as for thicker ZnO, as part of the ZnO layer
cannot couple to the near field [15]. The PL intensity can
even decrease for thinner ZnO due to the energy transfer
induced damping that dominates for very short distances
(<10 nm) [15]. This indicates the existence of an
optimum value of tc for getting enhanced PL from the Ag
embedded ZnO layer.
At wavelength 550 nm

of the photo generated carriers which eventually reduces

the photo current [10].
The reduction in the EQE at shorter wavelengths
(s) for the PSC-1 to PSC-4 may be explained by way
the electric field is spatially distributed at shorter
wavelengths: mostly being concentrated within the Ag
NPs or towards the AZO substrates as already discussed
(Fig. 8 (b) and (d)). Additionally, the loss in the photo
generated carriers at the recombination/trapping centers
present at the interface between the multilayer TCO and
the a-Si:H at the front contact might have also resulted in
the reduced EQE for shorter wavelengths for PSC-1 to
PSC-4. Reduced FF and Voc values obtained from the I-V
characteristics (Fig. 5 and 6) of these SCs corroborate
this fact.

At wavelength 451 nm

Z (nm)
|E2|

|E2|

(b)

(a)
(a) (a
)
a-Si:H

a-Si:H

Effect of the Ag nano particles of ~50 nm lateral size

deposited on AZO and capped with different thicknesses
of ZnO layers have been used as the substrates for aSi:H/a-Si:H double tandem solar cells (DTSCs)
fabrication. Study of the QE spectra of the front cells of
the DTSCs have revealed sharp decrease in the shorter
wavelength range S ( < 550 nm) and increase in the
longer wavelength range L (=550 nm to 750 nm),
particularly of the front cell whenever the combination of
Ag NPs and ZnO capping layer is present. Theoretical
simulation of the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) of the
Ag nanostructures reveal that the SPR of the Ag NPs
may be responsible for the enhancement of a PL band
corresponding to an oxygen vacancy related defect within
the band gap of ZnO. This visible emission band above
530 nm produces the enhancement of the EQE over the
range L. The reason for the decrease of EQE over S,
on the other hand, is the result of the absorption within
the Ag NPs as also the loss of the photo carriers at the
defect/recombination centers generated at the multilayer
TCO/a-Si:H interface. A net enhancement in the short
circuit current value of 3.5% has been observed with 50
nm ZnO capping layer thickness. It has been proposed
that optimizing the ZnO capping layer thickness can lead
to improved performance the solar cells.

X (nm)
Z (nm)

|E2|

|E2|

(d)

(c)

a-Si:H

a-Si:H

CONCLUSION

X (nm)

Fig. 8 Electric field distribution along the X-Z plane at

two different wavelengths of 550 nm (left) and 451 nm
(right) around the Ag NP embedded within the ZnO layer
with the a-Si:H layer above for ZnO capping layer
thickness of 5 nm ((a) and (b)), and 50 nm ((c) and (d)).
The illumination is from negative Z direction. The ZnO
capping layer has been demarcated by the yellow line
with the a-Si:H above.
On the light of the above discussion, we may
therefore conclude that the LSPR of the Ag NPs can
enhance the emission associated with the oxygen related
vacancy from the ZnO above 530 nm; the extent of the
enhancement being depended upon the value of tc (Fig.
4(a)). The emitted light from the oxygen related vacancy
increases the photon flux entering into the a-Si:H layer of
the SCs above the wavelength of 530 nm which
eventually contributes to a considerable EQE
enhancement for these SCs for the range L.
The EQE for PSC-5 where no EQE enhancement was
observed further corroborates the effect of the LSPR
assisted PL emission from the ZnO capping layer (Fig.
4). A strong near field concentration is indeed possible
around the Ag NPs formed even in an un-annealed Ag
film (Fig. 2(a)), however no PL enhancement is likely
owing to the absence of the ZnO capping layer over the
Ag NPs. PL emission from the AZO substrate itself is
weak because of the presence of high density of defect
states induced by Al. Moreover, the overall reduction in
EQE for PSC-5 throughout the wavelength range is in
accordance with the fact that the defect/trap states
generated in the vicinity of the Ag NPs/a-Si:H interface
for the PSC-5 can significantly limit the collection
probability of the carriers by the enhanced recombination

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This (paper) is based upon work supported in part

under the USIndia Partnership to Advance Clean
Energy-Research (PACE-R) for the Solar Energy
Research Institute for India and the United States
(SERIIUS), funded jointly by the US Department of
Energy (Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy
Sciences, and Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy,
Solar Energy Technology Program, under Subcontract
DE-AC 36-08GO28308 to the National Renewable
Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado) and the
Government of India, through the Department of Science
and
Technology
(DST)
under
Subcontract
IUSSTF/JCERDCSERIIUS/2012 dated 22nd November
2012. One of the author (A.M) acknowledges INSPIRE
fellowship from DST.

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