Strategically Manipulated Polymer Solar Cells to Incorporate Plasmonically Enhanced Spectral Upconversion Backplane

Abstract

Spectral upconversion systems placed underneath solar cells have the considerable potential for enhancement of the photovoltaic performance as they allow additional absorption for the solar photons with energy below the bandgap of active materials. However, their application to a type of ultrathin solar cells for achieving the meaningful benefit of the efficiency improvement is challenging, because a pre‐existing rear‐side reflector that substantially increases the photon absorption needs to be eliminated for photonic interaction between photovoltaic active layer and upconversion medium, and hence a level of cell efficiency becomes limited. Herein a facile strategy is presented that can circumvent the issue of performance deterioration arising from the expelled reflector for integrating plasmonically enhanced upconversion systems with ultrathin nonfullerene‐based polymer solar cells. By employing a wavelength‐selectively reflective rear electrode of metal/dielectric multilayer that enables the photon penetration only at excitation and emission wavelengths of the upconversion process, the effect of photocurrent improvement with uncompromising efficiency levels can be expected from the plasmonic upconversion backplane comprising NaYF4:Yb3+,Er3+ core‐shell nanoparticles and metallic nanostructure. Systematic studies of optical process and resulting device performance in both experiments and numerical modeling provide the optimal design scheme for high‐performance polymer solar cells assisted with upconversion systems.

Study on the Up-Conversion Luminescence and Conductivity Behavior of p-Type NiO:Yb,Er Thin Films

“…For example, Xu et al synthesized NaYF 4 :Yb,Er particles and doped them into the hole transport layer (HTL) of perovskite solar cells (PSCs) [ 14 ]. Cho et al designed nanostructured Ag backplanes with NaYF 4 :Yb,Er particles to enhance the performance of PSCs [ 15 ]. Recently, we increased the photocurrent of PSCs through adding UC nanoparticles to their absorption layer [ 16 ].…”

Manipulating upconversion luminescence intensity in a single crystal particle with a waveguide structure

“…[1][2][3][4][5] Such attributes endow these Ln-doped UCL materials with a wide range of potential applications including three-dimensional (3D) volumetric displays, anti-counterfeiting, photovoltaic devices, superresolution nanoscopy, and biomedical fields. [6][7][8][9][10][11][12] The UCL process that transforms low-energy light into higher-energy light is known as anti-Stokes emission. 13 Currently most of the relatively efficient Ln-doped UCL materials result from the 4f n -4f n transitions.…”