Surface plasmon effect in electrodeposited diamond-like carbon films for photovoltaic application

Highlights: • n-Si/DLC solar cell by simple electrodeposition technique. • Surface plasmon effect in n-Si/DLC solar cell. • 28% enhancement in J_SC due to plasmonic nPs (Ag) in DLC solar cell. Diamond-like carbon (DLC) films and nanocrystalline silver particles containing diamond-like carbon (DLC:Ag) films were electrodeposited on n-type silicon substrate (n-Si) to prepare n-Si/DLC and n-Si/DLC:Ag heterostructures for photovoltaic (PV) applications. Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) effect in this cell structure and its overall performance have been studied in terms of morphology, optical absorption, current-voltage characteristics, capacitance-voltage characteristics, band diagram and external quantum efficiency measurements. Localized surface plasmon resonance effect of silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) in n-Si/DLC:Ag PV structure exhibited an enhancement of ∼28% in short circuit current density (J_SC), which improved the overall efficiency of the heterostructures.