SEMICONDUCTOR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, cilt.1, sa.1, ss.1-11, 2026 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
In this study, the performance recovery process was performed on a commercially available EM5063 model solar cell in two stages. First, the solar cell was irradiated with UV light at a wavelength of λ=360 nm for 1 hour daily over 12 weeks to examine its impact on photovoltaic parameters. After each irradiation, I-V measurements were taken under dark and light conditions (100 mW/cm2) to determine the open circuit voltage (VOC), short circuit current (ISC), fill factor (FF), and efficiency (η). The donor density (Nd) and junction barrier potential (Vbi) were calculated from C-V measurements. The efficiency of the solar cell exposed to UV irradiation decreased by approximately 61.5%, from 1.42% to 0.55%. In the second stage, the irradiated solar cell was cooled at 200 K in a vacuum chamber at 10-6 Torr, and its surface was coated with equal-sized Ag clusters (10-12 nm). Optical measurements showed that the Ag-coated solar cell displayed surface plasmon resonance (SPR) at ~530 nm. This resulted in a 71% increase in efficiency, from 0.55% to 0.94%. This marks the first time that low-performance solar cells have been recycled using a cryogenic coating method.