title: An optimized surface plasmon photovoltaic structure using energy transfer between discrete nano-particles.
abstract: Surface plasmon enhancement has been proposed as a way to achieve higher absorption for thin-film photovoltaics, where surface plasmon polariton(SPP) and localized surface plasmon (LSP) are shown to provide dense near field and far field light scattering. Here it is shown that controlled far-field light scattering can be achieved using successive coupling between surface plasmonic (SP) nano-particles. Through genetic algorithm (GA) optimization, energy transfer between discrete nano-particles (ETDNP) is identified, which enhances solar cell efficiency. The optimized energy transfer structure acts like lumped-element transmission line and can properly alter the direction of photon flow. Increased in-plane component of wavevector is thus achieved and photon path length is extended. In addition, Wood-Rayleigh anomaly, at which transmission minimum occurs, is avoided through GA optimization. Optimized energy transfer structure provides 46.95% improvement over baseline planar cell. It achieves larger angular scattering capability compared to conventional surface plasmon polariton back reflector structure and index-guided structure due to SP energy transfer through mode coupling. Via SP mediated energy transfer, an alternative way to control the light flow inside thin-film is proposed, which can be more efficient than conventional index-guided mode using total internal reflection (TIR).
authors: Department of Electronic Engineering, National Chiao-Tung University, Hsinchu 30010, Taiwan. hdtd5746@gmail.com
authors: Albert
authors: A
authors: Lin
authors: Sze-Ming
authors: SM
authors: Fu
authors: Yen-Kai
authors: YK
authors: Chung
authors: Shih-Yun
authors: SY
authors: Lai
authors: Chi-Wei
authors: CW
authors: Tseng
mesh_terms: D000042:Absorption; D003198:Computer Simulation; D011211:Electric Power Supplies; D004735:Energy Transfer; D004867:Equipment Design; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry*; D012542:Scattering, Radiation; D012993:Solar Energy; D020349:Surface Plasmon Resonance / Q000295:instrumentation*