Plasmon enhancement of bulk heterojunction organic photovoltaic devices by electrode modification

Chen, Xiaohong; Zhao, Chunchang; Rothberg, Lewis J.; Ng, Man‐Kit

doi:10.1063/1.2988190

Cited by 77 publications

(90 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…The excited MNPs thereby strongly absorb (near-field effect) and scatter (far-field effect) the incident light, producing an enhancement up to a factor of 100 [3], in the electric field surrounding them [8]. Previous studies showed that the PCE of BHJOSCs was improved considerably by MNPs incorporated into OSC layers either on top of indium tin oxide (ITO) [9][10][11][12], within poly(3,4-ethyl-enedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) [13][14][15], within P3HT:PCBM [16], or with the back electrode [17].…”

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confidence: 99%

Optically-enhanced performance of polymer solar cells with low concentration of gold nanorods in the anodic buffer layer

Mahmoud

Zhang

et al. 2012

Organic Electronics

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Abstract:In this work, the effect of gold nanorods on the performance of poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl):[6,6]-phenyl-C 61 -butyric-acid-methyl-ester bulk heterojunction solar cells was investigated. Gold nanorods were introduced into the anodic buffer layer by simply blending them with the solution of poly(3,4-ethyl-enedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate). Even with a fairly low density of the nanorods, the resulting devices showed a remarkable 21.3% enhancement in the power conversion efficiency and a 13% enlargement in the short circuit current. By examining the absorbance profiles of active films made with different conditions, such enhancements can be related to the localized transverse and longitudinal plasmon resonance modes in the metallic nanoparticles. Gold nanorods helped as well in reducing the device series resistance by up to 36%, which also contributed to the global enhancement in the efficiency.

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confidence: 99%

Optically-enhanced performance of polymer solar cells with low concentration of gold nanorods in the anodic buffer layer

Mahmoud

Zhang

et al. 2012

Organic Electronics

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“…This is in part because of the relatively narrow optical wavelength range in which typical donor and acceptor molecules absorb strongly. Seemingly the tunability of particle plasmon resonances via variation of their shapes, size, and dielectric environment should allow a broader spectral absorption range [4] for hybrid metallic nanostructure/OSC devices, which might be expected to produce enhanced solar cell efficiency [5][6][7][8][9][10], as has been found for Si-based devices [11]. Reports of the efficacy of this approach [5][6][7][8][9][10]12] however are contradictory.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Seemingly the tunability of particle plasmon resonances via variation of their shapes, size, and dielectric environment should allow a broader spectral absorption range [4] for hybrid metallic nanostructure/OSC devices, which might be expected to produce enhanced solar cell efficiency [5][6][7][8][9][10], as has been found for Si-based devices [11]. Reports of the efficacy of this approach [5][6][7][8][9][10]12] however are contradictory. Some, based upon simple transmission measurements and/or external quantum efficiency (EQE) measurements [5][6][7][8][9] of BHJ OSC devices which incorporated small (i.e., <50 nm in diameter) Ag or Au nanospheres, indicate an increase in the efficiency.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Reports of the efficacy of this approach [5][6][7][8][9][10]12] however are contradictory. Some, based upon simple transmission measurements and/or external quantum efficiency (EQE) measurements [5][6][7][8][9] of BHJ OSC devices which incorporated small (i.e., <50 nm in diameter) Ag or Au nanospheres, indicate an increase in the efficiency. For example, Mofa, et al [5] reported an increased power conversion efficiency, from 1.3% to 2.2%, on incorporation of silver nanospheres in a BHJ solar cell; however the device with Ag nanospheres exhibited a decrease in external quantum efficiency at the peak wavelength in extinction spectrum (450 nm).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effect of Extended Extinction from Gold Nanopillar Arrays on the Absorbance Spectrum of a Bulk Heterojunction Organic Solar Cell

et al. 2015

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Abstract:We report on the effects of enhanced absorption/scattering from arrays of Au nanopillars of varied size and spacing on the spectral response of a P3HT:PCBM bulk heterojunction solar cell. Nanopillar array-patterned devices do show increased optical extinction within a narrow range of wavelengths compared to control samples without such arrays. The measured external quantum efficiency and calculated absorbance, however, both show a decrease near the corresponding wavelengths. Numerical simulations indicate that for relatively narrow nanopillars, the increased optical extinction is dominated by absorption within the nanopillars, rather than scattering, and is likely dissipated by Joule heating.

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“…The improvement of the absorption can be achieved by different methods, such as tandem structures [14,[122][123][124], downconversion [125][126][127][128][129][130][131], upconversion [132][133][134][135][136][137][138], synthesis of broad band absorption polymers [31,32,[139][140][141][142], scattering, employing plasmonic effects [143][144][145][146][147][148], and using fluorescence concentrators [149][150][151][152][153][154]. Considering our lab's capability, the fluorescence converter appears to be a viable approach.…”

Section: Enhancement Of Absorption By Fluorescence Structure Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Photocurrent Limiting Mechanisms in Organic Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells

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As we use more energy as a society, there is a greater need to become less reliant on non-renewable energy sources. Photovoltaics (PV), as a method of harvesting sunlight and converting it into electricity, provide a potential way of producing clean renewable energy.Organic bulk heteojunction (BHJ) solar cells featured with low-cost, large-area and thin-film manufacture, have become more viable with the recent demonstration with power conversion efficiencies (PCE) as high as10.7%. However, there is still a room for further improvement to reach the thermodynamic PCE limit of ~22%. For organic BHJ solar cells, the efficiency is essentially limited by the low short-circuit current density, which is determined by four sequential steps that are necessary to transform incident photons to free charge carriers. These steps are photo absorption and exciton formation, exciton diffusion, polaron pair dissociation and free polaron collection. In order to know the extent to which each of these steps limits the efficiency, a systematic study to analyze the limiting mechanisms is beneficial.In this work, we report approaches that are capable of providing insight into these processes by applying several complementary experimental techniques and theoretical calculations. The material system that are studied are poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT): Therefore, it is quite intrigue to explore the reasons behind that.For absorption, the optical transfer-matrix theory is applied on the multi-thinlayer structure of organic BHJ solar cells. The complex refractive index is extracted.Meanwhile, the optical electric field and the absorption efficiency are calculated and iii AcknowledgementThe Ph.D study is a strict but a joyful scientific training. To make through it, I'd like to thank to the people who gave me tremendous support in these years.First and foremost I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Joe C. Campbell, for his patient guidance, continual support and encouragement during my Ph.D study. I learned a lot from him, not only about how to tackle the experimental/theoretical problems, but also about the vision, the presentation skills, and the way to keep a good relationship with your collaborators. I also appreciate the research freedom that Dr. Joe C. Campbell gave to me, which allows me to deliberate, to try and to pursuit without worrying.

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Plasmon enhancement of bulk heterojunction organic photovoltaic devices by electrode modification

Cited by 77 publications

References 23 publications

Optically-enhanced performance of polymer solar cells with low concentration of gold nanorods in the anodic buffer layer

Optically-enhanced performance of polymer solar cells with low concentration of gold nanorods in the anodic buffer layer

Effect of Extended Extinction from Gold Nanopillar Arrays on the Absorbance Spectrum of a Bulk Heterojunction Organic Solar Cell

Photocurrent Limiting Mechanisms in Organic Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells

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