Nanoparticle-coated n-ZnO/p-Si photodiodes with improved photoresponsivities and acceptance angles for potential solar cell applications

In this work, n-ZnO/p-Si photodiodes were fabricated and characterized to explore their potential applications in solar cells. With a coating of silica nanoparticles, we observed the enhancement of photoresponsivity and acceptance angle at a wavelength between 400 and 650 nm. The 17.6% increase of the photoresponsivity over the conventional device is due to the improved optical transmission toward the semiconductor through the silica nanoparticles. Furthermore, the acceptance angle of the nanoparticle coated device is dramatically increased, which is attributed to the effect of Bragg diffraction.