Open AccessEfficiency and loss mechanisms of plasmonic Luminescent Solar Concentrators
Author(s) -
Clemens Tummeltshammer,
Mark S. Brown,
Alaric Taylor,
Anthony J. Kenyon,
Ioannis Papakonstantinou
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.21.00a735
Subject(s) - materials science , plasmon , luminescence , absorption (acoustics) , optics , optoelectronics , plasmonic solar cell , scattering , light scattering , silver nanoparticle , nanoparticle , nanoscopic scale , energy conversion efficiency , nanotechnology , polymer solar cell , physics , composite material
Using a hybrid nanoscale/macroscale model, we simulate the efficiency of a luminescent solar concentrator (LSC) which employs silver nanoparticles to enhance the dye absorption and scatter the incoming light. We show that the normalized optical efficiency can be increased from 10.4% for a single dye LSC to 32.6% for a plasmonic LSC with silver spheres immersed inside a thin dye layer. Most of the efficiency enhancement is due to scattering of the particles and not due to dye absorption/re-emission.