Modification of Front Surface Antireflection of Silicon Solar Cells with Composite Metallic Nanoparticle Arrays

This work reports on a numerical simulation study of the front surface modification of silicon solar cells by using composite metallic nanoparticle arrays. On top of the front surface of the cells, composite arrays that are made of silver or gold nanoparticles are carefully designed. The radii of the nanoparticles in the composite array and the lattice constant of the array are respectively varied, and the corresponding light reflectance at the front surface of the cell is calculated in the wavelength range from 400 to 1100 nm, via the FDTD method. The results determined from the composite arrays reveal that the reflectance curve across the whole wavelength range studied presents a more uniform behavior, compared with simple arrays. It is shown that the surface plasmon excitation effect of the metallic nanoparticles plays a crucial role in the light reflectance performance at the front surface of the silicon solar cells. The dependence of the light reflectance on the direction of the incident light's polarization is also investigated, and it is found that the polarization has little effect on the reflectance curves once the composite arrays are optimized.