Plasmon-enhanced polymer photovoltaic cells based on large aspect ratio gold nanorods and the related working mechanism

• Main Authors: Chen, S. F., Cheng, F., Mei, Y., Peng, B., Kong, M., Hao, J. Y., Zhang, R., Xiong, Q. H., Wang, L. H., Huang, W.
• Other Authors: School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Materials::Photonics and optoelectronics materials
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/103708; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/20022
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Two types of Au nanorods (NRs) possessing longitudinal/transverse axes of 55/11 (NR11) and 90/18 nm (NR18) are, respectively, incorporated into the hole extraction layer to improve optical-to-electrical conversion performances in polymer photovoltaic cells. Totally different improvement factors in short-circuit current and power conversion efficiency occur in the NR11- and NR18-doped cells. Optical simulations, electrical analysis, and morphology alteration accompanying with the incorporation of NRs were proceeded to investigate the reason, and analysis demonstrates that a slower damping of field around NRs18 (results in a field and absorption enhancement around the active layer) and one order higher scattering cross section in the NR18-incorporated cell are key factors contributed to the improvement of cell performances.