Improved Efficiency of Silicon Nanoholes/Gold Nanoparticles/Organic Hybrid Solar Cells via Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance

Silicon is the most widely used material for solar cells due to its abundance, non-toxicity, reliability, and mature fabrication process. In this paper, we fabricated silicon nanoholes (SiNHS)/gold nanoparticles (AuNPS)/organic hybrid solar cells and investigated their spectral and opto-electron conversion properties. SiNHS nanocomposite films were fabricated by metal-assisted electroless etching (EE) method. Then, we modified the surface of the nanocomposite films by exposing the samples in the air. After that, polymer poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly (styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) blended with AuNPS were spin-coated on the surface of the SiNHS nanocomposite films as a hole-transporting layer. The external quantum efficiency (EQE) values of the solar cells with AuNPS are higher than that of the samples without AuNPS in the spectral region of 600–1000 nm, which were essential to achieve high performance photovoltaic cells. The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the solar cells incorporating AuNPS exhibited an enhancement of 27 %, compared with that of the solar cells without AuNPS. We thought that the improved efficiency were attributed to localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) triggered by gold nanoparticles in SiNHS nanocomposite films.