title: Tunable localized surface plasmon-enabled broadband light-harvesting enhancement for high-efficiency panchromatic dye-sensitized solar cells.
abstract: In photovoltaic devices, light harvesting (LH) and carrier collection have opposite relations with the thickness of the photoactive layer, which imposes a fundamental compromise for the power conversion efficiency (PCE). Unbalanced LH at different wavelengths further reduces the achievable PCE. Here, we report a novel approach to broadband balanced LH and panchromatic solar energy conversion using multiple-core-shell structured oxide-metal-oxide plasmonic nanoparticles. These nanoparticles feature tunable localized surface plasmon resonance frequencies and the required thermal stability during device fabrication. By simply blending the plasmonic nanoparticles with available photoactive materials, the broadband LH of practical photovoltaic devices can be significantly enhanced. We demonstrate a panchromatic dye-sensitized solar cell with an increased PCE from 8.3% to 10.8%, mainly through plasmon-enhanced photoabsorption in the otherwise less harvested region of solar spectrum. This general and simple strategy also highlights easy fabrication, and may benefit solar cells using other photoabsorbers or other types of solar-harvesting devices.
authors: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
authors: Xiangnan
authors: X
authors: Dang
authors: Jifa
authors: J
authors: Qi
authors: Matthew T
authors: MT
authors: Klug
authors: Po-Yen
authors: PY
authors: Chen
authors: Dong Soo
authors: DS
authors: Yun
authors: Nicholas X
authors: NX
authors: Fang
authors: Paula T
authors: PT
authors: Hammond
authors: Angela M
authors: AM
authors: Belcher