Plasmonic nanostructures for light trapping in organic photovoltaic devices

Abstract

Over the past decade, we have witnessed rapid advances in the development of organic photovoltaic devices (OPVs). At present, the highest level of efficiency has surpassed 10%, suggesting that OPVs have great potential to become competitive with other thin-film solar technologies. Because plasmonic nanostructures are likely to further improve the efficiency of OPVs, this Article reviews recent progress in the development of metal nanostructures for triggering plasmonic effects in OPVs. First, we briefly describe the physical fundamentals of surface plasmons (SPs). Then, we discuss recent approaches toward increasing the light trapping efficiency of OPVs through the incorporation of plasmonic structures. Finally, we provide a brief outlook into the future use of SPs in highly efficient OPVs.

Plasmonic electrodes for bulk-heterojunction organic photovoltaics: a review

“…[10][11][12][13][14][15] Metals that are efficiently able to support surface plasmons in the visible regime (e.g., Ag, Cu, and Au) tend to have high work functions (either for the pure metal or with a native surface oxide), making them suitable anodes for inverted bulk-heterojunction organic photovoltaics (BHJ-OPVs) due to their more stable anodic behavior (see Fig. 1).…”

“…As such, plasmonic electrodes used as back and/or front electrodes of a photovoltaic device are proposed to potentially enhance the performance of inverted BHJ-OPVs through light trapping or localization in the thin-film active layer. 1,2,5,12,14,15 In addition to light management, plasmonic electrodes may be suitable replacements for transparent conducting electrodes when employed as the front electrode of the device. By control of the structure and surface work function of the plasmonic electrodes (either through partial oxidation or through application of an interfacial layer), both the optical and electronic properties of the plasmonic electrode can be tuned.…”

“…In contrast to metallic NPs dispersed into BHJ-OPVs, nanostructured metallic electrodes typically support some combination of LSPRs, SPPs, and hybridized modes. 14,15,[30][31][32] Plasmonic nanostructures are particularly relevant for thin-film photovoltaics (PVs), which tend to absorb less light (due to the nature of thin films) and often require novel nanophotonic light-trapping techniques to achieve reasonable efficiencies. Plasmonic nanostructures can be incorporated into BHJ-OPVs either by forming metallic nanostructured electrodes or interlayers or by embedding metallic NPs into one of the layers of the device.…”

“…33 into BHJ-OPV layers, as there are a number of recent reviews on this subject [e.g., (Refs. [10][11][12][13][14][15]]. There are three primary ways in which metallic nanostructured electrodes can be placed inside a PV device: (1) on the back metallic electrode; [31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42] (2) on the front/transparent electrode; [43][44][45][46][47] or (3) as a charge transport interlayer inside of the device stack [48][49][50][51] (see Fig.…”

Advancing colloidal quantum dot photovoltaic technology

“…Therefore, photocurrent enhancements on the order of at least 20% are needed to approach the theoretical limits. Methods to overcome this limitation include materials engineering [96,[189][190][191], device architectural modifications [192][193][194][195][196], incorporation of light trapping techniques to decrease the effective film absorption lengths [197][198][199][200][201][202] and the integration of plasmonic elements to enhance absorption in the CQD material [203][204][205][206][207][208]. These strategies, along with other advanced techniques, will be discussed in the following sections.…”