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Light‐Harvesting Properties of a Subphthalocyanine Solar Absorber Coupled to an Optical Cavity
Author(s) -
Esteso Victoria,
Caliò Laura,
Espinós Hilario,
Lavarda Giulia,
Torres Tomás,
Feist Johannes,
García-Vidal Francisco J.,
Bottari Giovanni,
Míguez Hernán
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
solar rrl
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.544
H-Index - 37
ISSN - 2367-198X
DOI - 10.1002/solr.202100308
Subject(s) - exciton , absorption (acoustics) , resonator , coupling (piping) , polariton , optoelectronics , optical cavity , materials science , photon , molecular physics , physics , condensed matter physics , optics , laser , metallurgy
Herein, both from the experimental and theoretical point of view, the optical absorption properties of a subphthalocyanine (SubPc), an organic macrocycle commonly used as a sunlight harvester, coupled to metallic optical cavities are analyzed. How different electronic transitions characteristic of this compound and specifically those that give rise to excitonic (Q band) and charge transfer (CT band) transitions couple to optical cavity modes is investigated. It is observed that whereas the CT band couples weakly to the cavity, the Q band transitions show evidence of hybridization with the photon eigenstates of the resonator, a distinctive trait of the strong coupling regime. As a result of the different coupling regimes of the two electronic transitions, very different spectral and directional light‐harvesting features are observed, which for the weakly coupled CT transitions are mainly determined by the highly dispersive cavity modes and for the strongly coupled Q band by the less angle‐dependent exciton‐polariton bands. Modeling also allows discriminating parasitic from productive absorption in each case, enabling the estimation of the expected losses in a solar cell acting as an optical resonator.