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Broadband short-range surface plasmon structures for absorption enhancement in organic photovoltaics

Wenli Bai, Qiaoqiang Gan, Guofeng Song, Lianghui Chen, Zakya Kafafi, and Filbert Bartoli

Open Access Open Access

Abstract

We theoretically demonstrate a polarization-independent nanopatterned ultra-thin metallic structure supporting short-range surface plasmon polariton (SRSPP) modes to improve the performance of organic solar cells. The physical mechanism and the mode distribution of the SRSPP excited in the cell device were analyzed, and reveal that the SRSPP-assisted broadband absorption enhancement peak could be tuned by tailoring the parameters of the nanopatterned metallic structure. Three-dimensional finite-difference time domain calculations show that this plasmonic structure can enhance the optical absorption of polymer-based photovoltaics by 39% to 112%, depending on the nature of the active layer (corresponding to an enhancement in short-circuit current density by 47% to 130%). These results are promising for the design of organic photovoltaics with enhanced performance.

©2010 Optical Society of America

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Figures (8)
Fig. 1
Fig. 1 A schematic diagram of the proposed plasmonic organic solar cell.

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Fig. 6
Fig. 6 Comparison between the simulated and measured absorbance [see the red dots, reproduced from Fig. 2(b) in Ref. [9]. of a 150nm thick P3HT:PC70BM layer.

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Fig. 2
Fig. 2 Calculations on the device with the nanopatterned metallic structure of diameter D = 150nm, and period P = 300nm. (a) Solid line - the absorption spectrum with a nanopatterned metallic structure; dotted line - the absorption spectrum with a flat metallic structure; and dashed line - the absorption enhancement spectrum. (b) and (c) are time averaged magnetic intensity (|Hy|2) distributions at the SPP resonance wavelength. (b) is the intensity distribution in the x-y plane, and (c) is the intensity distribution in x-z plane. The spatial mode profile is plotted in the right panel of (c).

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Fig. 3
Fig. 3 (a) and (b) are electric field distributions at the SRSPP resonance wavelength at 725nm. (a) Time-averaged (color-scale) and instantaneous (arrows) electric field strengths and surface charge distribution in x-z plane, and (b) Instantaneous EZ vector distribution at the top and bottom surfaces of the Ag nanostructure. (c) Map of the absorption enhancement versus wavelength and metallic nanostructure thickness. The solid arrow corresponds to the resonance wavelength of the single-interface SPP Bloch mode. The dashed line corresponds to the analytical solutions of the SRSPP Bloch modes.

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Fig. 7
Fig. 7 The photon flux density of the solar spectrum.

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Fig. 4
Fig. 4 Maps of the absorption enhancement versus wavelength and period for two organic solar cells, i.e. a P3HT:PC70BM cell (a), and a PCPDTBT:PCBM cell (b). The dashed lines correspond to the analytical solutions of the SRSPP Bloch modes.

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Fig. 5
Fig. 5 (a) The short-circuit current density (JSC) and its corresponding enhancement versus period of the nanopatterned metallic structure for the P3HT:PC70BM cell. The inset shows the absorbed photons spectra of the device with a nanopatterned metallic structure (solid line, P = 260nm) and a flat metallic surface (dotted line). (b) JSC and its corresponding enhancement versus period of the nanopatterned structure for the PCPDTBT:PCBM cell. The inset shows the absorbed photons spectra of the device with nanopatterned metallic structure (solid line, P = 320nm) and flat metallic surface (dotted line).

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Fig. 8
Fig. 8 The relation between the JSC and the active layer thickness of the P3HT:PC70BM device. The red curve is the JSC of the device with nanostructured back reflector; the black curve is the JSC of the device with a 20nm flat back reflector. Inset: The relation between the JSC enhancement factor (the ratio of the JSC-nano and JSC-ref ) and the active layer thickness.

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Equations (3)

Equations on this page are rendered with MathJax. Learn more.

k i n − p l a n e = G i j = i G x + j G y .
| k S P P | = ω c ε d ε m ε d + ε m ,
tanh ( S 2 t ) ( ε d 1 ε d 2 S 2 2 + ε m 2 S 1 S 3 ) + [ ε m S 2 ( ε d 1 S 3 + ε d 2 S 1 ) ] = 0.
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