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Energy Express

Energy Express

  • Editor: C. Martijn de Sterke
  • Vol. 19, Iss. S6 — Nov. 7, 2011
  • pp: A1202–A1210

Optics InfoBase > Energy Express > Volume 19 > Issue S6 > Page A1202

Combined plasmonic gratings in organic solar cells

Honghui Shen and Bjorn Maes  »View Author Affiliations


Optics Express, Vol. 19, Issue S6, pp. A1202-A1210 (2011)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/OE.19.0A1202


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Abstract

We propose an organic solar cell structure with combined silver gratings consisting of both a front and a back grating. This combination provides multiple, semi-independent enhancement mechanisms which act additively, so that a broadband absorption is obtained. Both gratings couple the incident light into various plasmonic modes, showing a more localized or propagating character respectively. In addition, some modes only appear for tilted incident light, and therefore present a complex angle-dependent behavior. We provide extensive numerical simulations, resulting in an optimized period of 490nm, with front grating elements of 60 by 10nm and back elements of 60 by 30nm. With these parameters an integrated absorption enhancement factor around 1.35 is observed, with absorption increasing from 48% to 65% under TM polarized light. In addition, the solar cell with combined gratings is much less sensitive to the angle of incident light than the single grating cases. Furthermore, the grating structure does not have a large influence on the TE polarized light absorption.

© 2011 OSA

OCIS Codes
(040.5350) Detectors : Photovoltaic
(050.2770) Diffraction and gratings : Gratings
(240.6680) Optics at surfaces : Surface plasmons
(350.6050) Other areas of optics : Solar energy
(250.5403) Optoelectronics : Plasmonics

ToC Category:
Photovoltaics

History
Original Manuscript: July 26, 2011
Revised Manuscript: September 12, 2011
Manuscript Accepted: September 12, 2011
Published: October 3, 2011

Citation
Honghui Shen and Bjorn Maes, "Combined plasmonic gratings in organic solar cells," Opt. Express 19, A1202-A1210 (2011)
http://www.opticsinfobase.org/oe/abstract.cfm?URI=oe-19-S6-A1202


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