title: Comparing plasmonic and dielectric gratings for absorption enhancement in thin-film organic solar cells.
abstract: We theoretically investigate and compare the influence of square silver gratings and one-dimensional photonic crystal (1D PC) based nanostructures on the light absorption of organic solar cells with a thin active layer. We show that, by integrating the grating inside the active layer, excited localized surface plasmon modes may cause strong field enhancement at the interface between the grating and the active layer, which results in broadband absorption enhancement of up to 23.4%. Apart from using silver gratings, we show that patterning a 1D PC on top of the device may also result in a comparable broadband absorption enhancement of 18.9%. The enhancement is due to light scattering of the 1D PC, coupling the incoming light into 1D PC Bloch and surface plasmon resonance modes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA. khai.le@mail.utexas.edu
authors.forename: Khai Q
authors.initials: KQ
authors.lastname: Le
authors.forename: Aimi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Abass
authors.forename: Bjorn
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Maes
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bienstman
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Alù
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D017076:Computer-Aided Design; D011211:Electric Power Supplies; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D008027:Light; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D055096:Optical Devices; D012031:Refractometry / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012542:Scattering, Radiation; D012993:Solar Energy; D020349:Surface Plasmon Resonance / Q000295:instrumentation*
chemical_list: D008567:Membranes, Artificial