Abstract
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 photovoltaic device (PVD) with an atomically flat TiO2 dielectric/dye/graphene/metal nanoparticle (NP) interface for quantitatively studying the SPR enhancement of the photovoltaic conversion. Theoretical and experimental results indicated that the graphene monolayer was transparent to the electromagnetic field. This transparency led to significant substrate-induced plasmonic hybridization at the heterostructure interface. Combined with interparticle plasmonic coupling, the substrate-induced plasmonics concentrated light at the interface and enhanced the photo-excitation of dyes, thus improving the photoelectric conversion. Such a mechanistic understanding of interfacial plasmonic enhancement will further promote the development of efficient plasmon-enhanced solar cells and composite photocatalysts.
Highlights
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
Light management techniques are of great importance to realize low-cost photovoltaic conversion because they can increase the absorption of photoelectric materials in solar cells, which enhances the efficiency of photoelectric conversion and decreases material usage[9,10,11,12,13]
SPR has been used for nanoscale light trapping in various photovoltaic devices (PVDs)[10,18], including thin-film Si solar cells[19,20], organic polymer solar cells[21,22], dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs)[23,24] and quantum dot photovoltaics[25]
Summary
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. We designed a photovoltaic device (PVD) with an atomically flat TiO2 dielectric/dye/graphene/metal nanoparticle (NP) interface for quantitatively studying the SPR enhancement of the photovoltaic conversion. SPR has been used for nanoscale light trapping in various photovoltaic devices (PVDs)[10,18], including thin-film Si solar cells[19,20], organic polymer solar cells[21,22], dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs)[23,24] and quantum dot photovoltaics[25]. In these traditional PVDs, SPR-induced light concentration generally occurs at the interface between the metallic nanostructure and dielectric layer. This system allows the mechanism of interface-engineered plasmonic enhancement of the photovoltaic conversion to be studied
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