Hot‐electron emission‐driven energy recycling in transparent plasmonic electrode for organic solar cells

Abstract

Plasmonic metal electrodes with subwavelength nanostructures are promising for enhancing light harvesting in photovoltaics. However, the nonradiative damping of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) during coupling with sunlight results in the conversion of the excited hot-electrons to heat, which limits the absorption of light and generation of photocurrent. Herein, an energy recycling strategy driven by hotelectron emission for recycling the SPP energy trapped in the plasmonic electrodes is proposed. A transparent silver-based plasmonic metal electrode (A-PME) with a periodic hexagonal nanopore array is constructed, which is combined with a luminescent organic emitter for radiative recombination of the injected hot-electrons.Owing to the suppressed SPP energy loss via broadband hot-electron emission, the A-PME achieves an optimized optical transmission with an average transmittance of over 80% from 380 to 1200 nm. Moreover, the indium-tin-oxide-free organic solar cells yield an enhanced light harvesting with a power conversion efficiency of 16.1%.

Plasmonic Bound States in the Continuum Metasurface–Semiconductor–Metal Architecture Enables Efficient Hot-Electron-Based Photodetector

“…2 Therefore, extracting hot electrons is a promising approach for photon-induced carrier generation, which has been widely employed for photodetection, 4−14 photocatalysis, 15,16 surface imaging, 17 and so on. 18,19 In the realm of photodetection, when SPs are excited, hot electrons may overcome the Schottky barrier before thermalization and then be injected into the conduction band of the semiconductor to generate photocurrent within a short time domain; 20−22 in addition, electron− phonon relaxation can also be used to heat the nanostructures, achieving photoelectric conversion within a long time domain based on thermal effects. 11,23 These photodetectors are collectively known as plasmonic hot-electron-based photodetectors (HEB-PDs).…”

“…Hot electrons are high-energy electrons produced during the nonradiative decay process of surface plasmons (SPs). − Unlike the “free electrons”, hot electrons possess a large amount of energy, which is much higher than the bandgap ( E g ) of targeted materials and usually 1–2 eV above the Fermi level . Therefore, extracting hot electrons is a promising approach for photon-induced carrier generation, which has been widely employed for photodetection, − photocatalysis, , surface imaging, and so on. , In the realm of photodetection, when SPs are excited, hot electrons may overcome the Schottky barrier before thermalization and then be injected into the conduction band of the semiconductor to generate photocurrent within a short time domain; − in addition, electron–phonon relaxation can also be used to heat the nanostructures, achieving photoelectric conversion within a long time domain based on thermal effects. , These photodetectors are collectively known as plasmonic hot-electron-based photodetectors (HEB-PDs). Although the mechanism has been intensively comprehended, the reported HEB-PDs are still limited by the low incident photon-to-electron conversion efficiency (IPCE).…”

Intelligent Cubic-Designed Piezoelectric Node (iCUPE) with Simultaneous Sensing and Energy Harvesting Ability toward Self-Sustained Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT)

“…Energy harvesting research has increased over the past two decades to provide a green alternative for the sensor nodes by extracting energy from the ambient environment. In terms of wireless sensor node applications, several promising energy sources have been studied such as solar, − thermal, − wind, and vibration; harvesting energy from mechanical vibrations is one of the most promising technologies in microsystems applications. Mechanical vibrations from the environment such as biological movements, machines, bridges, vehicles, tunnels, and other civil equipment have better power generation capabilities due to their versatility, high power density, and abundant presence.…”