Improved light trapping in microcrystalline silicon solar cells by plasmonic back reflector with broad angular scattering and low parasitic absorption

We show experimentally that the photocurrent of thin-film hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon (μc-Si:H) solar cells can be enhanced by 4.5 mA/cm2 with a plasmonic back reflector (BR). The light trapping performance is improved using plasmonic BR with broader angular scattering and lower parasitic absorption loss through tuning the size of silver nanoparticles. The μc-Si:H solar cells deposited on the improved plasmonic BR demonstrate a high photocurrent of 26.3 mA/cm2 which is comparable to the state-of-the-art textured Ag/ZnO BR. The commonly observed deterioration of fill factor is avoided by using μc-SiOx:H as the n-layer for solar cells deposited on plasmonic BR.