Figure 1. Concept of plasmonics nanoparticle (NP) enabled ultra-thin high-efficiency Si wafer solar cells.

(a) A standard 180 μm solar cell, consisting of a 75 nm SiNx antireflection coating (ARC) layer, the Si layer and the Al back reflector. Ultra-thin solar cell with (b) the spherical NPs located on the front surface of the SiNx ARC and (c) the hemispherical NPs embedded in a SiO2 layer between the Si layer and the Al back reflector.