Dipolar and Quadrupolar Modes of SiO ₂ /Au Nanoshell Enhanced Light Trapping in Thin Film Solar Cells

Abstract

Dipolar and quadrupolar resonance wavelengths of SiO2/Au nanoshell surface plasmons are designed at 560 nm to enhance the light trapping in thin film solar cells. In order to quantitatively describe the light trapping effect, the forward-scattering efficiency (FSE) and the light trapping efficiency (LTE) are proposed by considering the light scattering direction of SiO2/Au nanoshells. Based on the Mie theory, the FSE and the LTE are calculated for SiO2/Au nanoshells of different dimensions, and the contributions of the dipolar and quadrupolar modes to the light trapping effect are analyzed in detail. When the surface coverage of nanoshells is 5%, the LTEs are 21.7% and 46.9% for SiO2/Au nanoshells with sizes of (31 nm, 69 nm) and (53 nm, 141 nm), respectively. The results indicate that the SiO2/Au nanoshell whose quadrupolar mode peak is designed to the strongest solar energy flux density of the solar spectrum facilitates the further enhancement of light harvesting in thin film solar cells.

A simple and accurate method for measuring program/erase speed in a memory capacitor structure

“…So, quickly forming enough minority carriers in the channel in the inversion regime is indispensable to correctly measure the minority carrier-related program/erase speed in a memory capacitor structure. In order to enhance the minority carrier generation rate in a memory capacitor, illumination [9,10] is employed during the P/E transient measurement. Figure 2 presents a scheme to measure erase transient characteristics for a p-channel memory capacitor under illumination.…”

Fabrication and sensing application of a silver nanoshell array structure by a micro-flow injection method

“…1,2 Among various metal nano array structures, the spherical shell structure has attracted more attention because of its relatively simple preparation and wide tuning range of LSPR wavelength. [3][4][5][6][7] It is shown that the LSPR resonance peak can be changed by varying the shape, size, spacing and surrounding environment of the nanoparticles on the liquid, silicon or glass substrates. [8][9][10][11][12] In recent years, considerable progress has been made in the preparation and application of metal nanospheres.…”

Near-Infrared Properties of Hybridized Plasmonic Rectangular Split Nanorings

“…This greatly enhanced EM field, known as surface plasmon resonance (SPR), has received wide applications such as to surface enhanced spectra, [3,4] sensors, [5] thermal imaging and therapy, [6] plasmonic lasers, [7] ultra transmission, [8,9] abnormal reflection, [10] photocatalysis [11] and solar energy. [12,13] Considering the SPR has a strong relationship to the geometry of structures and wavelength of the incident light, the enhancement of the EM field has been studied in the past all over the world on various plasmonic structures, such as nanoparticles, [14] nanowires, [15] nanorods, [9,16] nanoholes, [17] nanodisks, [18] and closed nanorings. [19] In the near-infrared, those nanostructures are used in plasmonic devices for optical communications, [20] thermal imaging, [21−23] biomedical application, [6,24] solar energy, [13,25] etc.…”

“…[12,13] Considering the SPR has a strong relationship to the geometry of structures and wavelength of the incident light, the enhancement of the EM field has been studied in the past all over the world on various plasmonic structures, such as nanoparticles, [14] nanowires, [15] nanorods, [9,16] nanoholes, [17] nanodisks, [18] and closed nanorings. [19] In the near-infrared, those nanostructures are used in plasmonic devices for optical communications, [20] thermal imaging, [21−23] biomedical application, [6,24] solar energy, [13,25] etc. In addition to the abovementioned nanostructures, the split nanorings have been suggested as interesting plasmonic nanostructures for making sensors, [26] lasing spacers and coherent plasmon emitters in the near-infrared region.…”