Design principles for particle plasmon enhanced solar cells

Abstract

We develop fundamental design principles for increasing the efficiency of solar cells using light trapping by scattering from metal nanoparticles. We show that cylindrical and hemispherical particles lead to much higher path length enhancements than spherical particles, due to enhanced near-field coupling, and that the path length enhancement for an electric point dipole is even higher than the Lambertian value. Silver particles give much higher path length enhancements than gold particles. The scattering cross section of the particles is very sensitive to the thickness of a spacer layer at the substrate, which provides additional tunability in the design of particle arrays.

Exciton-plasmon coupling interactions: from principle to applications

“…According to the local electric field, it is proportional to the absorption of the semiconductor [199]. The metal nanoparticles are deposited or even embedded in the semiconductor, and metal nanoparticles on the regulation of light characteristics are used to increase the absorption of incident light by increasing the local electric field [200][201][202]. The incident light is coupled with the nanoparticles in the form of waveguides between the nanoparticles and the medium until the light is completely absorbed [203][204][205].…”

Organic solar cells with plasmonic layers formed by laser nanofabrication

“…40 Nanostuctures at the back contact should be a combination of both big and small sizes, carefully designed to achieve the desired effects. For small features, the absorption mode dominates, enhancing the surface plasmon waves developed across the boundary of the back metal contact and the photoactive layer, 41 enhancing the exciton dissociation with the strong Efield. Large particles would increase the scattering and redistribution of the unabsorbed photons in the active layer at different angles, increasing the active path and therefore the probability that photons are absorbed.…”

Plasmas meet plasmonics

“…By using relatively large Ag islands (around 50 nm) the scattering of light into the PV cell is enhanced, the plasmon resonance of these particles can be tuned so it is around the desired wavelength by modifying the surrounding local dielectric environment [179]. Note that the enhancement may be optimised by varying the shape, size, material and surface coverage of the nanostructure [178][179][180][181][182][183][184]. Figure 6a shows that higher aspect nanostructures (i.e., cylinders rather than spheres) maximises the fraction of incident light scattered into the photoactive layer and hence enhances the solar cell efficiency [180].…”

“…Note that the enhancement may be optimised by varying the shape, size, material and surface coverage of the nanostructure [178][179][180][181][182][183][184]. Figure 6a shows that higher aspect nanostructures (i.e., cylinders rather than spheres) maximises the fraction of incident light scattered into the photoactive layer and hence enhances the solar cell efficiency [180]. Akimov et al numerically investigated the effect of the the size and surface coverages of Ag nanoparticles [183,184] on light absorption in Si thin film solar cells.…”