Influence of Plasmonic Light-Scattering by Gold Nano-Island Structures on the Quantum Efficiency of Organic Solar Cells

Abstract:

Gold nano-island structures were fabricated on the light-illumination side of an organic solar cell device to investigate how the light scattering by localized surface plasmon resonance influences the quantum efficiency of an organic solar cell. A light beam from a solar simulator experiences multiple interaction processes with the gold nanostructures before reaching the organic active material, which may include the scattering, the reflection, and the absorption by the gold nano-islands. However, only the scattering process may partially contribute to the enhancement of the conversion efficiency. The reflection and absorption processes make the gold nanostructures act as “blockers” and prevent the light from reaching the solar cell device. Even the scattering process may not always play positive roles in improving the performance of the device. Thus, experimental studies in this work intend to find out a balance between the loss and the enhancement mechanisms, so that the efficiency of the solar cell can be improved. Our experimental results found a possibly optimized configuration of the gold nano-island structures, which leads to enhancement of the conversion efficiency of the solar cell device.

• Periodical: Advanced Materials Research (Volume 571)
• Pages: 160-164
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.571.160
• Online since: September 2012
• Authors: Bao Zeng Wang, Xin Ping Zhang, Jian Zhang
• Keywords: Gold Nano-Island Structure, Organic Solar Cell (OSC), Particle Plasmon Resonance

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