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Light absorption enhancement in heterostructure organic solar cells through the integration of 1-D plasmonic gratings

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Abstract

The integration of a plasmonic lamellar grating in a heterostructure organic solar cell as a light trapping mechanism is investigated with numerical Finite Elements simulations. A global optimization of all the geometric parameters has been performed. The obtained wide-band enhancement in optical absorption is correlated with both the propagating and the localized plasmonic modes of the structure, which have been identified and characterized in detail.

©2012 Optical Society of America

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Figures (9)

Fig. 1
Fig. 1 2D FEM model cross section (a) and 3D picture (b) of the plasmonic OSC.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2 (a) Absorptance within active layers CuPc and C60 (blue solid line), absorptance in metal parts (black solid line) and reflectance (red solid line) of the optimal cell compared to the same quantities calculated for the optimal cell without grating (dashed lines); (b) Absorptance enhancement (Q/Q0) in the active layers for TM (blue) and TE (red) polarizations; (c) Real and Imaginary parts of relative dielectric constants of CuPc (black) and of C60 (green).
Fig. 3
Fig. 3 TM Modes dispersion for flat configurations with (black) and without (red) 10 nm continuous Ag film between the ITO layer and the HTL. The blue dashed line is the light line in glass.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4 Electric field profiles of modes at representative frequencies. (a) back electrode SPP modes with and without 10 nm Ag film; (b) TM0 ITO waveguide modes with and without 10 nm Ag film; (c) LR-SPP mode; (d) SR-SPP mode.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5 (a) Single strip normalized absorption cross section as a function of strip width and frequency. Black solid lines mark single strip resonance positions according to Eq. (2) with ø ≈1.2 rad; the vertical dashed line mark the optimal strip width configuration as found in Section 3; (b), (c): Scattered electric field norms in the configurations marked with circles in the map; their strip widths are respectively 140 and 66 nm. Color scales in (b), (c) are normalized to the impinging wave electric field norm.
Fig. 6
Fig. 6 TM Absorption enhancement within the organic layers with respect to the optimal cell without any grating as a function of crystal wave vector G = 2π/d and angular frequency ω. Black lines are the back SPP coupling dispersions according to Eq. (3) for m = 1, 2, while the white line represents the single strip resonance, i.e. the zero of Eq. (2) for m = 1. The optimal grating period is marked with the dashed black line. Empty and filled circles mark configurations whose electric field norm is reported respectively in Fig. 8(a) and 8(b); the “+” marks the peak of absorption enhancement at λ = 780 nm.
Fig. 7
Fig. 7 TM Absorptance in back electrode (a) and in the metal strips (b) as a function of crystal wave vector G = 2π/d and angular frequency ω. Strip-width-to-period ratio and grating thickness are kept fixed to 25% and 10 nm respectively. In both maps the black lines are the back SPP coupling dispersions according to Eq. (3) for m = 1, 2, while the white line represents the single strip resonance, i.e. the zero of Eq. (2) for m = 1. The vertical black dotted line marks the optimal grating period (380 nm). Filled and empty circles mark the configurations whose electric field norm is reported in Fig. 8(a) and 8(b).
Fig. 8
Fig. 8 Electric field norm for configurations marked with an empty circle (a) and with a filled circle (b) in Fig. 6 and 7 and corresponding respectively to the single strip resonance and to the SPP at back electrode coupling. Frequencies are respectively ω = 2.32∙1015 Hz and 2.63∙1015 Hz. Geometrical parameters are those of the optimal configuration. Colorscale is normalized to the impinging wave electric field norm.
Fig. 9
Fig. 9 (a) TE absorption enhancement within the organic layers as a function of G = 2π/d and ω; white dashed lines and black lines are Wood’s anomalies and ITO TE0 waveguide modes respectively; the black dashed line marks the optimal grating period; (b) scattered field norm in the configuration marked with a square in the map.

Equations (4)

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T= Q(λ)F(λ)dλ F(λ)dλ
w k SRSPP (ω)=mπ+ϕ
mG=m 2π d = k SPP (ω)m=±1,±2,±3,...
G= ωRe(N) mc m=±1,±2,±3,...
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