Progress in plasmonic solar cell efficiency improvement: A status review

Mandal, P.; Sharma, Sakshi

doi:10.1016/j.rser.2016.07.031

Cited by 137 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 193 publications

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“…Thus, most of the 8% for the proposed nanodisc-based nanofluid would not be 'lost,' but would be scattered in directions that would still reach the silicon. In fact, plasmonic solar cells are intentionally designed with highly scattering nanoparticles embedded (or deposited) in (or on) their layers to increase the path length of light as it propagates through the cell [38]. See Wiley et al for more in on how the optical coefficients change according to particle morphology [39].…”

Section: Optical Characterisationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental Testing of Hydrophobic Microchannels, with and without Nanofluids, for Solar PV/T Collectors

et al. 2019

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Solar energy can be converted into useful energy via photovoltaic cells or with a photothermal absorber. While these technologies are well-developed and commercially viable, significant benefits can be realised by pulling these two technologies together in photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) systems which can provide both heat and electricity from a single collector. Emerging configurations in the PV/T field aim to incorporate micro and/or nanotechnology to boost total solar utilisation even further. One example of this is the nanofluid-based PV/T collector. This type of solar collector utilises nanofluids—suspensions of nanoparticles in traditional heat transfer fluids—as both an optical filter and as a thermal absorber. This concept seeks to harvest the whole solar spectrum at its highest thermodynamic potential through specially engineered nanofluids which transmit the portion of solar spectrum corresponding to the PV response curve while absorbing the rest as heat. Depending on the nanoparticle concentration, employing nanofluids in a flowing system may come with a price—an efficiency penalty in the form of increased pumping power (due to increased viscosity). Similarly, microchannel-based heat exchangers have been shown to increase heat transfer, but they may also pay the price of high pumping power due to additional wall-shear-related pressure drop (i.e., more no-slip boundary area). To develop a novel PV/T configuration which pulls together the advantages of these micro and nanotechnologies with minimal pumping power requirements, the present study experimentally investigated the use of nanofluids in patterned hydrophobic microchannels. It was found that slip with the walls reduced the impact of the increased viscosity of nanofluids by reducing the pressure drop on average 17% relative to a smooth channel. In addition, flowing a selective Ag/SiO2 core–shell nanofluid over a silicon surface (simulating a PV cell underneath the fluid) provided a 20% increase in solar thermal conversion efficiency and ~3% higher stagnation temperature than using pure water. This demonstrates the potential of this proposed system for extracting more useful energy from the same incident flux. Although no electrical energy was extracted from the underlying patterned silicon, this study highlights potential a new development path for micro and nanotechnology to be integrated into next-generation PV/T solar collectors.

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Section: Optical Characterisationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental Testing of Hydrophobic Microchannels, with and without Nanofluids, for Solar PV/T Collectors

et al. 2019

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“…The coupling condition of dispersive SPPs depends on the periodicity of the grating and the angle of incidence and the polarization state of the incoming light [ 18 ]. The advantages of Bragg SPPs, such as easy excitation, the angular dependent coupling condition, polarization sensitivity, as well as the field enhancements, are widely used in surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensors [ 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 ], for surface plasmon coupled light emission [ 23 ], in photo detectors [ 11 , 24 ] and in plasmonic solar cells [ 12 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plasmon-Assisted Direction- and Polarization-Sensitive Organic Thin-Film Detector

et al. 2020

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Utilizing Bragg surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) on metal nanostructures for the use in optical devices has been intensively investigated in recent years. Here, we demonstrate the integration of nanostructured metal electrodes into an ITO-free thin film bulk heterojunction organic solar cell, by direct fabrication on a nanoimprinted substrate. The nanostructured device shows interesting optical and electrical behavior, depending on angle and polarization of incidence and the side of excitation. Remarkably, for incidence through the top electrode, a dependency on linear polarization and angle of incidence can be observed. We show that these peculiar characteristics can be attributed to the excitation of dispersive and non-dispersive Bragg SPPs on the metal–dielectric interface on the top electrode and compare it with incidence through the bottom electrode. Furthermore, the optical and electrical response can be controlled by the organic photoactive material, the nanostructures, the materials used for the electrodes and the epoxy encapsulation. Our device can be used as a detector, which generates a direct electrical readout and therefore enables the measuring of the angle of incidence of up to 60° or the linear polarization state of light, in a spectral region, which is determined by the active material. Our results could furthermore lead to novel organic Bragg SPP-based sensor for a number of applications.

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“…First, a variety of approaches has been applied to increase light absorption, such as surface texturing and light frequency conversion [2][3][4]. In particular, research for light trapping has focused on the surface plasmons technology via metallic nanoparticles (NPs) over the past decades [5,6]. It has been established that surface plasmons induced by light illumination on noble metallic NPs result in scattering or absorption of light [7,8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Local Schottky contacts of embedded Ag nanoparticles in Al₂O₃/SiN_x:H stacks on Si: a design to enhance field effect passivation of Si junctions

et al. 2018

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This paper describes an original design leading to the field effect passivation of Si n-p junctions. Ordered Ag nanoparticle (Ag-NP) arrays with optimal size and coverage fabricated by means of nanosphere lithography and thermal evaporation, were embedded in ultrathin-AlO/SiN :H stacks on the top of implanted Si n-p junctions, to achieve effective surface passivation. One way to characterize surface passivation is to use photocurrent, sensitive to recombination centers. We evidenced an improvement of photocurrent by a factor of 5 with the presence of Ag NPs. Finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations combining with semi-quantitative calculations demonstrated that such gain was mainly due to the enhanced field effect passivation through the depleted region associated with the Ag-NPs/Si Schottky contacts.

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Progress in plasmonic solar cell efficiency improvement: A status review

Cited by 137 publications

References 193 publications

Experimental Testing of Hydrophobic Microchannels, with and without Nanofluids, for Solar PV/T Collectors

Experimental Testing of Hydrophobic Microchannels, with and without Nanofluids, for Solar PV/T Collectors

Plasmon-Assisted Direction- and Polarization-Sensitive Organic Thin-Film Detector

Local Schottky contacts of embedded Ag nanoparticles in Al₂O₃/SiN_x:H stacks on Si: a design to enhance field effect passivation of Si junctions

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Progress in plasmonic solar cell efficiency improvement: A status review

Cited by 137 publications

References 193 publications

Experimental Testing of Hydrophobic Microchannels, with and without Nanofluids, for Solar PV/T Collectors

Experimental Testing of Hydrophobic Microchannels, with and without Nanofluids, for Solar PV/T Collectors

Plasmon-Assisted Direction- and Polarization-Sensitive Organic Thin-Film Detector

Local Schottky contacts of embedded Ag nanoparticles in Al2O3/SiNx:H stacks on Si: a design to enhance field effect passivation of Si junctions

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Local Schottky contacts of embedded Ag nanoparticles in Al₂O₃/SiN_x:H stacks on Si: a design to enhance field effect passivation of Si junctions