Plasmon-Enhanced Silicon Nanowire Array-Based Hybrid Heterojunction Solar Cells

In the last decade, freestanding, single crystal silicon nanowires (SiNWs) have attracted significant attention as a potential material for low-cost optoelectronic devices. In this paper, we demonstrate how strong localized surface plasmon modes, induced using silver nanoparticles, can be used to achieve significant improvement in a simple hybrid organic-inorganic photovoltaic device between n-type silicon nanowires and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly-(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS). At photon energies above plasmon resonance, metallic nanoparticle-induced absorption leads to a dramatic reduction of the reflectivity and we report a significant improvement in both the short circuit current density (J(sc)) and the open circuit voltage (V-oc). This leads to an overall 52% increase in the power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of the photovoltaic devices when decorating the SiNWs with silver nanoparticles prior to PEDOT:PSS deposition.