Plasmonic‐Induced Photon Recycling in Metal Halide Perovskite Solar Cells

Abstract

Organic–inorganic metal halide perovskite solar cells have emerged in the past few years to promise highly efficient photovoltaic devices at low costs. Here, temperature-sensitive core–shell Ag@TiO2 nanoparticles are successfully incorporated into perovskite solar cells through a low-temperature processing route, boosting the measured device efficiencies up to 16.3%. Experimental evidence is shown and a theoretical model is developed which predicts that the presence of highly polarizable nanoparticles enhances the radiative decay of excitons and increases the reabsorption of emitted radiation, representing a novel photon recycling scheme. The work elucidates the complicated subtle interactions between light and matter in plasmonic photovoltaic composites. Photonic and plasmonic schemes such as this may help to move highly efficient perovskite solar cells closer to the theoretical limiting efficiencies

Recent advancements in plasmon-enhanced promising third-generation solar cells

“…photons are recycled) with the help of metal NPs [121,122]. According to the authors, it is the plasmonic-induced photon recycling by Ag@TiO 2 that improved the average PCE from 11.4%±1.3% to 13.7±1.2% ( Figure 23B) [120].…”

“…Figure 23A shows cross-sectional scanning electron microscope image of a perovskite meso-superstructured solar cell. In general, the optimum concentration of spherical metal NPs was found to be 0.8-0.9 wt% [117,120]. Interestingly, Zhang et al found that photo current enhancement in their developed plasmon-enhanced PSCs arose from the reduction of exciton binding energy with the integration of core@shell Au@SiO 2 NPs into an alumina scaffold [117].…”

“…Instead, they could not observe any near-field effects or absorption enhancement. Recently, the same research group put forward a new mechanism called 'plasmonic-induced photon recycling' to explain photocurrent enhancement [120]. This mechanism can be explained as follows: highly polarizable metal NPs can act as optical antennas by providing extended optical path length to the reemitted photons from the perovskite absorbers due to the exciton decay, so the reemitted light can be reabsorbed by the perovskite absorbers (i.e.…”

“…The integration of two hot topics (plasmonics and solar energy conversion) in materials science is expected to provide a new outlook for finding an amicable solution for the energy crisis. in most of the reports on plasmon-enhanced PSCs, to the best of our knowledge [117,118,120].…”

“…Plasmon-enhanced PSCs have only been realized in perovskite sensitized and meso-superstructured solar cell configurations [118,120]. To invoke plasmonic effects in PSCs, metal NPs were incorporated into inert or semiconducting oxide scaffolds that support the perovskite absorber.…”