Open AccessEffective medium analysis of absorption enhancement in short-pitch metal grating incorporated organic solar cells
Author(s) -
Ye Zhang,
Yanxia Cui,
Wenyan Wang,
Kin Hung Fung,
Ting Ji,
Yuying Hao,
Fu Rong Zhu
Publication year - 2016
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.24.0a1408
Subject(s) - materials science , absorption (acoustics) , optics , grating , surface plasmon , optoelectronics , electric field , plasmonic solar cell , reflection (computer programming) , surface plasmon resonance , solar cell , layer (electronics) , organic solar cell , plasmon , polymer solar cell , nanotechnology , nanoparticle , composite material , physics , quantum mechanics , computer science , programming language , polymer
The effective medium theory is applied to analyze the absorption enhancement in organic solar cells with a short-pitch metal grating. A 37% improvement in the absorption of the active layer is achieved with respect to that of a planar control cell. It is inspired that the propagating surface plasmon modes are excited at the interface between the effective medium layer and the flat metal plate, resulting in a reduction of light reflection. In real structure, the electric field redistributes with its intensity in the region with active materials infiltrated in the grooves increases significantly, exhibiting like hot spots to assist in achieving broadband absorption enhancement. Moreover, the localized surface plasmon resonances excited at the top of the metal ridges also contribute to the absorption enhancement in the cells.