EAGER: Plasmonic Wide Angle Light Concentrators for Bulk-Heterojunction Solar Cells

EAGER：用于体异质结太阳能电池的等离激元广角聚光器

• 批准号: 1346859
• 负责人: Qiuming Yu
• 金额: $ 9万
• 依托单位: University of Washington
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-08-15 至 2014-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1346859&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: EAGER; Plasmonic; Wide; Angle; Light

PI: Yu, Qiuming Proposal Number: 1346859 Institution: University of WashingtonTitle: EAGER: Plasmonic Wide Angle Light Concentrators for Bulk-Heterojunction Solar CellsOrganic bulk heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells offer the potential advantages as low-cost, lightweight, flexible, and large area devices that can be fabricated in the roll-to-roll printing method. Despite the recent progress in the increase of power conversion efficiency (PCE) of organic BHJ solar cells, fundamental breakthrough has to be made in order to develop high efficiency solar cells especially those working for wide light incident angles. This EAGER project will explore the concept of integrating novel plasmonic wide angle light concentrators as transparent electrodes in BHJ solar cells to tune and enhance transmitted light to match the energy band gaps of the donor and acceptor in the active layer in a wide range of incident angles. Electromagnetic finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations will be applied to rationally design the plasmonic nanostructures and the transfer matrix (TM) optical modeling will be used to design the entire device architecture to ensure the maximum light absorption in the active layer. The designed plasmonic nanostructures will be made on glass substrates via the nanoimprinting method which can be extended to the low-cost roll-to-roll printing method. The effects of far-field light transmission and near-field electric field enhancementinduced by plasmonic nanostructures on the performance of BHJ solar cells and the fundamental physical processes in solar energy conversion will be elucidated by conducting the experimental measurements on photocurrent density-voltage curve, reflectance and UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy, steady state and dynamic photoluminescence (PL), and external quantum efficiency (EQE). The objective of this work is to fundamentally understand the physical principles and processes governing the tuning of wide angle light absorption and the enhancement of charge transport and collection in BHJ solar cells by plasmonic nanostructures via a combined electromagnetic simulation and experimental approach.By integrating plasmonic wide angle light concentrators as transparent electrodes in BHJ solar cells, it will allow one to (1) replace the expensive ITO; (2) tune and concentrate far-field transmitted light to match the band gaps of donor and acceptor in the active layer; (3) enable wide angle absorption without mechanical moving parts; and (4) understand near-filed electric field enhancement on exciton generation and charge separation, transport and collection. A wide angle light concentrator enabled by plasmonic nanostructures will be developed and integrated into organic BHJ solar cells to enhance the solar energy conversion efficiency even at large oblique incident angles. The fundamental investigation and experimental findings from this work can be generalized for guiding the development of other types of solar cells and novel optoelectronic and plasmonic devices. Graduate and undergraduate students from underrepresented groups such as female will receive training and participate in this highly interdisciplinary research project.

PI：于秋明 提案编号：1346859 机构：华盛顿大学 标题：EAGER：用于体异质结太阳能电池的等离子广角聚光器有机体异质结（BHJ）太阳能电池具有低成本、轻质、柔性和大面积器件的潜在优势，可以通过卷对卷印刷方法制造。尽管最近在提高有机BHJ太阳能电池的功率转换效率（PCE）方面取得了进展，但为了开发高效太阳能电池，特别是那些适用于宽光入射角的太阳能电池，还需要取得根本性突破。该EAGER项目将探索将新型等离子体广角聚光器集成为BHJ太阳能电池中的透明电极的概念，以调整和增强透射光，以匹配有源层中的施主和受主在各种入射角下的能带隙。将应用电磁时域有限差分（FDTD）模拟来合理设计等离子体纳米结构，并使用传输矩阵（TM）光学建模来设计整个器件架构，以确保有源层中的最大光吸收。设计的等离子体纳米结构将通过纳米压印方法在玻璃基板上制成，该方法可以扩展到低成本的卷对卷印刷方法。通过光电流密度-电压曲线、反射率和紫外-可见吸收光谱、稳态和动态光致发光（PL）以及外量子效率的实验测量，阐明等离子体纳米结构引起的远场光传输和近场电场增强对BHJ太阳能电池性能和太阳能转换基本物理过程的影响 （EQE）。这项工作的目的是通过电磁模拟和实验相结合的方法，从根本上理解等离子体纳米结构调节广角光吸收以及增强 BHJ 太阳能电池中电荷传输和收集的物理原理和过程。通过将等离子体广角聚光器集成为 BHJ 太阳能电池中的透明电极，它将允许人们（1）取代昂贵的 ITO； (2)调整并集中远场透射光以匹配有源层中施主和受主的带隙； (3)无需机械移动部件即可实现广角吸收； (4)了解近场电场增强对激子产生和电荷分离、传输和收集的影响。将开发由等离子体纳米结构实现的广角聚光器，并将其集成到有机 BHJ 太阳能电池中，以提高太阳能转换效率，即使在大斜入射角下也是如此。这项工作的基础研究和实验结果可以推广用于指导其他类型的太阳能电池以及新型光电和等离子体器件的开发。来自女性等代表性不足群体的研究生和本科生将接受培训并参与这个高度跨学科的研究项目。