We report an alternative approach to enhance the optical and electrical performance of a vanadyl 2,9,16, 23-tetraphenoxy-29H,31H-phthalocyanine:poly(3hexylthiophene) (VOPcPhO:P3HT) blending system by integrating plasmonic spherical silver into an active layer of organic solar cells. Studies of the influence of the size distribution and optical properties of the silver nanoparticles were carried...

Herein, we constructed inverted PBDTTT-CF:PC70BM bulk-heterojunction organic solar cells by introducing Au nanoparticles to a ZnO buffer layer and a great improvement in energy conversion efficiency has been realized. To discover the positive roles of such plasmonic nanoparticles in the process of solar energy conversion, photovoltaic devices with the same architecture but different sized Au na...

Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) is widely used as light trapping schemes in solar cells, because it can concentrate light fields surrounding metal nanostructures and realize light management at the nanoscale. SPR in photovoltaics generally occurs at the metal/dielectric interfaces. A well-defined interface is therefore required to elucidate interfacial SPR processes. Here, we designed a photovo...

Direct collection, conversion and storage of solar radiation as thermal energy are crucial to the efficient utilization of renewable solar energy and the reduction of global carbon footprint. This work reports a facile approach for rapid and efficient charging of thermal energy storage materials by the instant and intense photothermal effect of uniformly distributed plasmonic nanoparticles. Upo...

We analytically investigate the light trapping performance in plasmonic solar cells with Si/metallic structures. We consider absorption enhancements for surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) at planar Si/metal interfaces and localized surface plasmon resonances (LSPRs) for metallic spheres in a Si matrix. We discover that the enhancement factors at Si/metal interfaces are not bound to the conventio...

A method for the synthesis of metal nanoparticle coatings for plasmonic solar cells which can meet large scale industrial demands is demonstrated. A UV pulsed laser is utilized to fabricate Au and Ag nanoparticles on the surface of polymer materials which form the substrates for plasmonic organic photovoltaic devices to enhance their performance. Control of the particles' size and density is de...

Plasmonic graphene is fabricated using thermally assisted self-assembly of silver nanoparticles on graphene. The localized surface-plasmonic effect is demonstrated with the resonance frequency shifting from 446 to 495 nm when the lateral dimension of the Ag nanoparticles increases from about 50 to 150 nm. Finite-difference time-domain simulations are employed to confirm the experimentally obser...

In 1982, Yablonovitch proposed a thermodynamic limit on light trapping within homogeneous semiconductor slabs, which implied a minimum thickness needed to fully absorb the solar spectrum. However, this limit is valid for geometrical optics but not for a new generation of subwavelength solar absorbers such as ultrathin or inhomogeneously structured cells, wire-based cells, photonic crystal-based...

Plasmonic nanoparticles located on the illuminated surface of a solar cell can perform the function of an antireflection layer, as well as a scattering layer, facilitating light-trapping. Al nanoparticles have recently been proposed to aid photocurrent enhancements in GaAs photodiodes in the wavelength region of 400-900 nm by mitigating any parasitic absorption losses. Because this spectral reg...