Toward high-efficiency solar upconversion with plasmonic nanostructures
Toward high-efficiency solar upconversion with plasmonic nanostructures
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DOI：
10.1088/2040-8978/14/2/024008
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发表时间：
2012-02-01
影响因子：
2.1
通讯作者：
Dionne, Jennifer A.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Atre, Ashwin C.;Garcia-Etxarri, Aitzol;Dionne, Jennifer A.
亚带隙光子的上转换可以将单结太阳能电池的最大效率从30%提高到44%以上。然而，上转换材料通常具有较小的吸收截面和较低的辐射复合效率，这限制了它们在太阳能应用中的应用。在这里，我们表明，通过适当设计的等离子体纳米结构可以显著提高上转换效率。该结构由一个上变频器掺杂的介质芯和一个新月形的金属壳组成的球形纳米新月形结构。使用数值技术，我们计算了在整个上转换核心的大范围的子带隙波长下，吸收增强了10倍以上。此外，这种纳米新月使太阳能电池的带隙以上功率发射增加了100倍。我们的结果为实现低功率太阳能上转换提供了一个框架，有可能使单结太阳能电池的效率超过Shockley-Queisser极限。
Upconversion of sub-bandgap photons can increase the maximum efficiency of a single-junction solar cell from 30% to over 44%. However, upconverting materials often have small absorption cross-sections and poor radiative recombination efficiencies that limit their utility in solar applications. Here, we show that the efficiency of upconversion can be substantially enhanced with a suitably designed plasmonic nanostructure. The structure consists of a spherical nanocrescent composed of an upconverter-doped dielectric core and a crescent-shaped metallic shell. Using numerical techniques, we calculate a greater than 10-fold absorption enhancement for a broad range of sub-bandgap wavelengths throughout the entire upconverting core. Further, this nanocrescent enables a 100-fold increase in above-bandgap power emission toward the solar cell. Our results provide a framework for achieving low-power solar upconversion, potentially enabling a single-junction solar cell with an efficiency exceeding the Shockley-Queisser limit.