Application of PLD to the production of plasmonic structures containing Ag nanoparticles based on chalcopyrite solar cells

The effect of a single layer of Ag nanoparticles (NPs) embedded in amorphous Al2O3 grown on Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGSe) thin film solar cells is analyzed. CIGSe thin films with Cu/(In+Ga)= 0.62-0.81 atomic ratios are used as absorber layers. Ag NPs with mean diameters ≈2 nm and Surface Plasmon Resonance close to 400 nm were deposited by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) on top of the solar cell. An efficiency of 15.9% is achieved for hybrid Ag NPs-CIGSe solar cells, close to that obtained by the best reference cell without the metallic NPs. These results suggest that PLD is a valid approach to produce plasmonic PV solar cells.