title: Jointly tuned plasmonic-excitonic photovoltaics using nanoshells.
abstract: Recent advances in spectrally tuned, solution-processed plasmonic nanoparticles have provided unprecedented control over light's propagation and absorption via engineering at the nanoscale. Simultaneous parallel progress in colloidal quantum dot photovoltaics offers the potential for low-cost, large-area solar power; however, these devices suffer from poor quantum efficiency in the more weakly absorbed infrared portion of the sun's spectrum. Here, we report a plasmonic-excitonic solar cell that combines two classes of solution-processed infrared materials that we tune jointly. We show through experiment and theory that a plasmonic-excitonic design using gold nanoshells with optimized single particle scattering-to-absorption cross-section ratios leads to a strong enhancement in near-field absorption and a resultant 35% enhancement in photocurrent in the performance-limiting near-infrared spectral region.
authors: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors: Daniel
authors: D
authors: Paz-Soldan
authors: Anna
authors: A
authors: Lee
authors: Susanna M
authors: SM
authors: Thon
authors: Michael M
authors: MM
authors: Adachi
authors: Haopeng
authors: H
authors: Dong
authors: Pouya
authors: P
authors: Maraghechi
authors: Mingjian
authors: M
authors: Yuan
authors: André J
authors: AJ
authors: Labelle
authors: Sjoerd
authors: S
authors: Hoogland
authors: Kun
authors: K
authors: Liu
authors: Eugenia
authors: E
authors: Kumacheva
authors: Edward H
authors: EH
authors: Sargent
mesh_terms: D011211:Electric Power Supplies; D004867:Equipment Design; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry; D057145:Nanoshells / Q000737:chemistry*; D045663:Quantum Dots / Q000737:chemistry*; D012993:Solar Energy
chemical_list: D006046:Gold