title: Imprinting localized plasmons for enhanced solar cells.
abstract: Imprinted silver nanovoid arrays are investigated via angle-resolved reflectometry to demonstrate their suitability for plasmonic light trapping. Both wavelength- and subwavelength-scale nanovoids are imprinted into standard solar cell architectures to achieve nanostructured metallic electrodes which provide enhanced absorption for improving solar cell performance. The technique is versatile, low-cost and scalable and can be applied to a wide range of organic semiconductors. Absorption features which are independent of incident polarization and weakly dependent on incident angle reveal localized plasmonic modes at the structured interface. Metallic nanostructure-PCPDTBT:PCBM samples demonstrate absorption enhancements of up to 40%. The structured interface provides light trapping, which boosts absorption at wavelengths where the semiconductors absorb poorly.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Center for NanoScience (CeNS), Ludwig-Maximilians University (LMU) Munich, Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Ricky B
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Dunbar
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Pfadler
authors.forename: Niraj N
authors.initials: NN
authors.lastname: Lal
authors.forename: Jeremy J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Baumberg
authors.forename: Lukas
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Schmidt-Mende
mesh_terms: D003460:Crystallization / Q000379:methods; D011211:Electric Power Supplies; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D008027:Light; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D054802:Molecular Imprinting / Q000295:instrumentation*; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000295:instrumentation*; D010316:Particle Size; D012542:Scattering, Radiation; D012993:Solar Energy; D020349:Surface Plasmon Resonance / Q000295:instrumentation*