Utilizing plasmonic opto-electrical effect toward high performance organic solar cells

Abstract

While many studies have found that the power conversion efficiency of OSCs is improved by inserting metal nanoparticles into the OSCs, little has been reported on the use of size- and shape-controlled metal nanoparticles for fine-tuning the optical properties. Here, we investigate the dependence of silver nanoparticles�� size and shape, at various concentrations, on the power conversion efficiency of OSCs[1]. Also, we propose a metal-metal core-shell nanocube (NC) as an advanced plasmonic material for highly efficient organic solar cells (OSCs). We covered an Au core with a thin Ag shell as a scattering enhancer to build Au@Ag NCs, showing stronger scattering efficiency than Au nanoparticles (AuNPs) throughout the visible range. Highly efficient plasmonic organic solar cells were fabricated by embedding Au@Ag NCs into an anodic buffer layer, poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS)[2, 3]. ? [1] S. Baek et al. ��Plasmonic Forward Scattering Effect in Organic Solar Cells: A Powerful Optical Engineering Method��, Scientific Reports, 3, 1726 (2013) [2] S. Baek et al. ��Au@Ag Core-Shell Nanocubes for Efficient Plasmonic Light Scattering Effect in Low Bandgap Organic Solar Cells��, ACS Nano, 8, 4, 3302 (2014) [3] S. Jeong et al. ��Nanoimprinting-induced nanomorphological transition in polymer solar cells: enhanced electrical and optical performance��, ACS Nano (2015)