title: Substrate-induced interfacial plasmonics for photovoltaic conversion.
abstract: Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) is widely used as light trapping schemes in solar cells, because it can concentrate light fields surrounding metal nanostructures and realize light management at the nanoscale. SPR in photovoltaics generally occurs at the metal/dielectric interfaces. A well-defined interface is therefore required to elucidate interfacial SPR processes. Here, we designed a photovoltaic device (PVD) with an atomically flat TiO2 dielectric/dye/graphene/metal nanoparticle (NP) interface for quantitatively studying the SPR enhancement of the photovoltaic conversion. Theoretical and experimental results indicated that the graphene monolayer was transparent to the electromagnetic field. This transparency led to significant substrate-induced plasmonic hybridization at the heterostructure interface. Combined with interparticle plasmonic coupling, the substrate-induced plasmonics concentrated light at the interface and enhanced the photo-excitation of dyes, thus improving the photoelectric conversion. Such a mechanistic understanding of interfacial plasmonic enhancement will further promote the development of efficient plasmon-enhanced solar cells and composite photocatalysts.
authors.affiliation: School of Materials and Energy, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Xinxi
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Center for Nanochemistry, Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, State Key Laboratory for Structural Chemistry of Unstable and Stable Species, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Chuancheng
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jia
authors.affiliation: Center for Nanochemistry, Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, State Key Laboratory for Structural Chemistry of Unstable and Stable Species, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Bangjun
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: State Key Lab for Mesoscopic Physics, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Lab for Mesoscopic Physics, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Zheyu
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.affiliation: School of Materials and Energy, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Guoqing
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Center for Nanochemistry, Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, State Key Laboratory for Structural Chemistry of Unstable and Stable Species, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, P. R. China.|Department of Materials Science and Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Xuefeng
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Guo