Plasmonic optical enhancement of solar module

An advanced solar module of light enhancement is presented in this paper. The light enhancement was dominated by a layer of sputtered-deposited Ag nanoparticles (NPs) on the encapsulant material (ethylene vinyl acetate, EVA). It was found that surface plasmonic resonance effects of Ag NPs increase the transmittance at the wavelength of (500~800) nm by around 2% as detected by IPCE profile. The photovoltaic performance of solar modules showed a current enhancement with Ag-EVA sample, and a high power output around 0.250 W was observed compared to the conventional solar module. A high fill factor of 73.63% also implied a high performance in series and shunt resistance. This paper not only illustrated the performance of the surface plasmonic resonance of a solar device but also verified the application in the industrial production.