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Thermally evaporated Ag nanoparticle films for plasmonic enhancement in organic solar cells: effects of particle geometry
Author(s) -
Haidari Gholamhosain,
Hajimahmoodzadeh Morteza,
Fallah Hamid Reza,
Peukert Andreas,
Chanaewa Alina,
Hauff Elizabeth
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
physica status solidi (rrl) – rapid research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.786
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1862-6270
pISSN - 1862-6254
DOI - 10.1002/pssr.201409528
Subject(s) - materials science , organic solar cell , nanoparticle , indium tin oxide , pedot:pss , solar cell , quantum efficiency , scattering , optoelectronics , absorption (acoustics) , nanotechnology , plasmonic solar cell , indium , annealing (glass) , quantum dot , thin film , polymer solar cell , optics , layer (electronics) , composite material , polymer , physics
We report on the simple fabrication of Ag NP films via thermal evaporation and subsequent annealing. The NPs are formed on indium tin oxide electrodes, coated with PEDOT:PSS and implemented into PCPDTBT:PC70BM solar cells. Scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy are used to determine the size distributions and surface coverage of the NP film. We apply finite‐difference time‐domain techniques to model the optical properties of different nanoparticle films and compare this with the absorption properties of the organic active layer. The simulations demonstrate that the absorption and scattering efficiency of the particles are very sensitive to particle geometry. Solar cells prepared with window electrodes containing NP layers with less surface coverage, show a 14.8% improvement in efficiency. We discuss variations in the external quantum efficiency of the devices in terms of forward scattering and parasitic absorption losses induced by the NP layer. (© 2015 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH &Co. KGaA, Weinheim)