Optimizing molecular light absorption in the strong coupling regime for solar energy harvesting
Optimizing molecular light absorption in the strong coupling regime for solar energy harvesting
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DOI：
10.1016/j.nanoen.2022.107244
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发表时间：
2022-04-13
期刊：
影响因子：
17.6
通讯作者：
Linic, Suljo
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Chavez, Steven;Linic, Suljo
光吸收体（如分子或半导体）与受限光子模式的强耦合通过形成混合光-物质态从根本上改变了耦合系统的物理性质。强光-物质耦合的一个潜在应用依赖于利用它将光诱导的电荷激发过程定位到小体积的材料上。受益于这种定位的应用包括薄膜光伏、光探测、光催化等，其中整体性能取决于材料在空间特定位置放大光吸收（即电子-空穴对的形成）的能力。本文研究了强光-物质耦合如何影响与光子纳米结构耦合的分子吸收剂的光吸收率。我们的研究结果表明，在强耦合分子与入射光子通量直接相互作用的构型中，分子光吸收效率最高。我们还确定了分子吸收作为浓度函数的非线性依赖，这是强耦合系统所特有的。基于这些结果，我们提出了工程纳米结构系统的设计原则，允许高效率的电荷载流子定位为强耦合吸收剂。
The strong coupling of optical absorbers (e.g., molecules or semiconductors) to confined photonic modes fundamentally alters the physical properties of the coupled system via the formation of hybrid light-matter states. One potential application of strong light-matter coupling relies on exploiting it to localize light-induced charge excitation processes to small volumes of material. Applications that would benefit from this localization include thin-film photovoltaics, photodetection, photocatalysis, and others, where the overall performance depends on the ability of a material to amplify light absorption (i.e., the formation of electron-hole pairs) within specific locations in space. This contribution investigates how strong light-matter coupling affects light absorption rates in molecular absorbers coupled to photonic nanostructures. Our results show that the molecular light absorption efficiencies are highest in configurations where the strongly coupled molecules interact directly with the incoming photon flux. We also identify a nonlinear dependence in the molecular absorption as a function of concentration, unique to the strongly coupled systems. Based on these results, we propose design principles for engineering nanostructured systems that allow for high efficiencies of charge carrier localization into strongly coupled absorbers.