Optical Enhancement via Electrode Designs for High‐Performance Polymer Solar Cells

Chueh, Chu‐Chen; Crump, Michael; Jen, Alex K.‐Y.

doi:10.1002/adfm.201503489

Cited by 54 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 133 publications

(220 reference statements)

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“…In addition, the resonance wavelength of the SPPs is relatively narrow compared with the broadband solar light, which is limited by the intrinsic dispersive metal properties and significantly depends on the incident light angle [112]. The polarization dependence and narrow resonance of the SPP modes hinder the application of the 1-D periodic nanostructures in OPVs.…”

Section: Sppsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Constructing an optical spacer is an effective approach to spatially redistribute the optical field inside OPVs [164][165][166]. The additional optical spacer can alter the optical interference in the multilayer OPVs to modulate the intensity of light in the photoactive layer, and an improved exciton generation can be expected because of the enhanced light harvesting [112]. The work function and charge transmission performance of the inserted optical spacer inside the OPVs should also be taken into consideration, which are key influencing factors for the performance of OPVs, and the inserted optical spacer commonly acts as the charge transmission or extraction layer.…”

Section: Optical Spacermentioning

confidence: 99%

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Nanostructures induced light harvesting enhancement in organic photovoltaics

Feng

et al. 2017

Nanophotonics

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Lightweight and low-cost organic photovoltaics (OPVs) hold great promise as renewable energy sources. The most critical challenge in developing high-performance OPVs is the incomplete photon absorption due to the low diffusion length of the carrier in organic semiconductors. To date, various attempts have been carried out to improve light absorption in thin photoactive layer based on optical engineering strategies. Nanostructureinduced light harvesting in OPVs offers an attractive solution to realize high-performance OPVs, via the effects of antireflection, plasmonic scattering, surface plasmon polarization, localized surface plasmon resonance and optical cavity. In this review article, we summarize recent advances in nanostructure-induced light harvesting in OPVs and discuss various light-trapping strategies by incorporating nanostructures in OPVs and the fabrication processing of the micro-patterns with high resolution, large area, high yield and low cost.

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Section: Sppsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Optical Spacermentioning

confidence: 99%

Nanostructures induced light harvesting enhancement in organic photovoltaics

Feng

et al. 2017

Nanophotonics

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“…In particular, with n 1 and n 2 , the refractive indexes of the active layer and its surrounding, respectively, the rate of spontaneous emission can be reduced up to a factor (n 2 /n 1 ) 5 for excitons with perpendicular orientation [18]. In addition to the above aspect, it has been emphasised that a proper choice of layer thicknesses inside the solar cell can significantly influence the distribution of sunlight intensity within the cell and, hence, the absorption of solar photon by the photo-active material [29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design of Organic Solar Cells as a Function of Radiative Quantum Efficiency

Godefroid

Kozyreff

2017

Phys. Rev. Applied

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We study the radiative decay, or fluorescence, of excitons in organic solar cells as a function of its geometrical parameters. Contrary to their nonradiative counterpart, fluorescence losses strongly depend on the environment. By properly tuning the thicknesses of the buffer layers between the active regions of the cell and the electrodes, the exciton lifetime and, hence, the exciton diffusion length can be increased. The importance of this phenomenon depends on the radiative quantum efficiency, which is the fraction of the exciton decay that is intrinsically due to fluorescence. Besides this effect, interferences within the cell control the efficiency of sunlight injection into the active layers. The optimal cell design must rely on a consideration of these two aspects. By properly managing fluorescence losses, one can significantly improve the cell performance. To demonstrate this fact, we use realistic material parameters inspired from literature data and obtain an increase of power-conversion efficiency from 11.3% to 12.7%. Conversely, not to take into account the strong dependence of fluorescence on the environment may lead to a suboptimal cell design and a degradation of cell performance. The presence of radiative losses, however small, significantly changes the optimal set of thicknesses. We illustrate the latter situation with experimental material data.

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“…Recently, plasmon-optical effects of metal nanostructures have been extensively used to boost active layer absorption in organic solar cells (OSCs). [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] Typically, the plasmonic resonances of nanomaterials are categorized into surface plasmonic resonance (SPR) of grating structures and localized surface plasmonic resonance (LSPR) of nanoparticles (NPs). The nanostructured electrode with periodic pattern can excite the SPRs as well as waveguide modes to favor DOI: 10.1002/smll.201601949…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High Efficiency Organic Solar Cells Achieved by the Simultaneous Plasmon‐Optical and Plasmon‐Electrical Effects from Plasmonic Asymmetric Modes of Gold Nanostars

Ren¹,

Cheng²,

Zhang

et al. 2016

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The plasmon-optical effects have been utilized to optically enhance active layer absorption in organic solar cells (OSCs). The exploited plasmonic resonances of metal nanomaterials are typically from the fundamental dipole/high-order modes with narrow spectral widths for regional OSC absorption improvement. The conventional broadband absorption enhancement (using plasmonic effects) needs linear-superposition of plasmonic resonances. In this work, through strategic incorporation of gold nanostars (Au NSs) in between hole transport layer (HTL) and active layer, the excited plasmonic asymmetric modes offer a new approach toward broadband enhancement. Remarkably, the improvement is explained by energy transfer of plasmonic asymmetric modes of Au NS. In more detail, after incorporation of Au NSs, the optical power in electron transport layer transfers to active layer for improving OSC absorption, which otherwise will become dissipation or leakage as the role of carrier transport layer is not for photon-absorption induced carrier generation. Moreover, Au NSs simultaneously deliver plasmon-electrical effects which shorten transport path length of the typically low-mobility holes and lengthen that of high-mobility electrons for better balanced carrier collection. Meanwhile, the resistance of HTL is reduced by Au NSs. Consequently, power conversion efficiency of 10.5% has been achieved through cooperatively plasmon-optical and plasmon-electrical effects of Au NSs.

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Optical Enhancement via Electrode Designs for High‐Performance Polymer Solar Cells

Cited by 54 publications

References 133 publications

Nanostructures induced light harvesting enhancement in organic photovoltaics

Nanostructures induced light harvesting enhancement in organic photovoltaics

Design of Organic Solar Cells as a Function of Radiative Quantum Efficiency

High Efficiency Organic Solar Cells Achieved by the Simultaneous Plasmon‐Optical and Plasmon‐Electrical Effects from Plasmonic Asymmetric Modes of Gold Nanostars

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