Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Nayeun Lee, Muyu Xue, Jiho Hong, Jorik van de Groep, Mark Luitzen Brongersma
Summary: Using nanoscale Mie-resonator arrays, simultaneous antireflection and light-trapping can be achieved for thin crystalline silicon solar cells, leading to improved power conversion efficiency.
ADVANCED MATERIALS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Shafayeth Jamil, Uday Saha, Md. Kawsar Alam
Summary: Thin-film silicon solar cells are of interest due to their low material usage and cost-effective processing, but their low power-conversion efficiency hinders commercial usage and mass production. To address this issue, an ultrathin dual junction tandem solar cell with Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) and crystalline silicon (c-Si) as the main absorbing layers was designed. Computational analyses showed a 28.28% power conversion efficiency within 9 μm thin-film c-Si using a 220 nm top CZTS layer. These findings have the potential to reduce the amount of silicon in solar cells while maintaining high power conversion efficiency.
NANOSCALE ADVANCES
(2023)
Review
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
S. Liu, Y. Sun, L. Chen, Q. Zhang, X. Li, J. Shuai
Summary: Organic solar cells have superior characteristics, but still lag behind inorganic photovoltaics in efficiency. Researchers have successfully improved the photoelectrical properties of OSCs by using various plasmonic nanostructures, which are suitable for enhancing device efficiency.
MATERIALS TODAY PHYSICS
(2022)
Article
Optics
Jongcheol Park, Il-Suk Kang, Gapseop Sim, Tae Hyun Kim, Jong-Kwon Lee
Summary: Randomly distributed plasmonic Ag nanoparticles on Si photodiode with antireflective SiNx/SiO2 bilayer show enhanced light absorption and responsivity, indicating potential applications in photodetectors.
Article
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Weiwen Jiang, Xi Chen
Summary: This paper proposes a design for enhancing light absorption in ultrathin perovskite solar cells through the integration of plasmonic structure arrays and moth-eye textured anti-reflection coatings. The optimized light absorption enhancement of 41% has been achieved compared to a blank 100 nm layer. The simulation results pave the way for environmentally friendly and high-performance perovskite optoelectronic devices.
Article
Energy & Fuels
Youngseok Lee, Jeong-Hyun Woo, Keonhee Kim, Kyeong Seok Lee, Yeonjoo Jeong, Jaewook Kim, Gyu Weon Hwang, Doh-Kwon Lee, Ju-Young Kim, Inho Kim
Summary: Ultrathin crystalline Si wafers, which are more flexible than conventional ones, can be applied to curved surfaces for various applications. To compensate for the reduced thickness, surface texturing is a common approach, but it deteriorates mechanical flexibility. This study proposes a laser-assisted nanotexturing process to enhance flexibility while maintaining light-trapping performances.
Article
Optics
Carlos Bueno-Blanco, Simon A. Svatek, Elisa Antolin
Summary: Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) are proposed as light absorber materials for ultrathin solar cells due to their strong light-matter interaction and the possibility of room temperature device assembly. Research shows that MoS2 absorbers as thin as 10 nm sandwiched between a h-BN top layer and an optically thick Ag reflector can absorb up to 87% of photons in the 300-700 nm range of the AM1.5G spectrum. The high broadband absorption is achieved through the amplification of the zeroth Fabry-Perot interference mode in the light-trapping structures.
Article
Chemistry, Analytical
Kai-Xin Xie, Qian Liu, Shu-Shu Jia, Xiu-Xian Xiao
Summary: The introduction of a hollow plasmonic structure led to enhanced surface plasmon-coupled emission (SPCE), resulting in significant fluorescence signal enhancements. This was primarily attributed to the unique hot-spot plasmonic structure between GNS and gold substrate, the intense electromagnetic field of GNSs, and the strong coupling interactions between fluorescence and surface plasmons.
ANALYTICA CHIMICA ACTA
(2021)
Article
Physics, Applied
Baoqing Wang, Wenhao Wang, Eric Ashalley, Xutao Zhang, Peng Yu, Hongxing Xu, Zhiming M. Wang
Summary: The refractory plasmonic absorber exhibits nearly perfect absorption over the entire solar spectrum range and uniform heating performance, making it suitable for selective thermal absorption in high-temperature environments and promising for solar energy harvesting and desalination applications.
JOURNAL OF PHYSICS D-APPLIED PHYSICS
(2021)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Yeasin Arafat Pritom, Dipayon Kumar Sikder, Sameia Zaman, Mainul Hossain
Summary: In this study, we used metallic gold nanoparticles to enhance the light absorption of ultra-thin silicon solar cells. Through simulations, we showed that the combination of periodic and parabola shaped silicon nanostructures, along with the decoration of gold nanoparticles, can significantly improve the absorption efficiency of the solar cells. The results suggest that this approach has the potential to achieve a high conversion efficiency of 21.39%.
NANOSCALE ADVANCES
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Yeasin Arafat Pritom, Dipayon Kumar Sikder, Sameia Zaman, Mainul Hossain
Summary: In this study, the light absorption properties of sub-wavelength plasmonic nanostructures decorated with metallic nanoparticles are demonstrated. The parabolic shape of the nanostructures provides excellent antireflection effects, while the metallic nanoparticles offer broadband absorption and high conversion efficiency. The proposed solar cell shows a power conversion efficiency as high as 21.39%, making it a promising candidate for the next generation of highly efficient, ultra-thin, and low-cost Si solar cells.
NANOSCALE ADVANCES
(2023)
Review
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Bin Ai, Ziwei Fan, Zi Jing Wong
Summary: This review summarizes the recent theoretical and experimental works on plasmonic perovskite solar cells, light emitters, and sensors. The underlying physical mechanisms, design routes, device performances, and optimization strategies are discussed, along with challenges and future directions for the plasmonic perovskite research field.
MICROSYSTEMS & NANOENGINEERING
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Pankaj Kumar Das, Anuj Dhawan
Summary: In this paper, the enhanced performance of organic solar cells (OSCs) with low band gap photoactive layers and 2D arrays of plasmonic nanostructures embedded at the back of the OSCs is demonstrated. The performance of the OSCs containing different plasmonic nanostructures is compared through finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations. The results show that OSCs with 2D arrays of Ag nano-parabola at the back of the solar cell exhibit significantly improved short circuit current density and power conversion efficiency compared to planar OSCs, due to enhanced light scattering near the localized plasmon resonance of the metallic nanostructures.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Brandon Yalin, Andreas C. Liapis, Matthew D. Eisaman, Dmytro Nykypanchuk, Chang-Yong Nam
Summary: The study demonstrates that ET-driven NC sensitization is highly effective in enhancing the short circuit current of ultrathin Si solar cells, especially for Si layers thinner than 100 nm. However, the ET approach becomes ineffective for Si active layers thicker than 5 µm, where conventional optical coupling dominates.
NANOSCALE ADVANCES
(2021)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Junli Su, Dingquan Liu, Leihao Sun, Gang Chen, Chong Ma, Qiuyu Zhang, Xingyu Li
Summary: This study proposes a high-performance solar absorber based on a tungsten truncated cone structure and a film resonator structure. The designed absorber achieves over 97.1% total solar absorption efficiency and low thermal emissivity, resulting in a high photothermal conversion efficiency of 91.6% at 100 degrees C. Additionally, it demonstrates excellent spectral absorptance in the ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared regions, making it promising for various applications.
Article
Optics
Yuan-Yuan Yue, Hai-Yu Wang, Lei Wang, Le-Yi Zhao, Hai Wang, Bing-Rong Gao, Hong-Bo Sun
Summary: A systematic investigation was conducted on the interactions of band-edge valley excitons in monolayer MoS2, revealing intravalley coherent coupling processes at room temperature. This study observed intravalley mixing and coherent oscillations in valley excitons of monolayer TMDs, providing insight into the many-body coupling mechanisms of excited valley excitons in 2D TMDs.
LASER & PHOTONICS REVIEWS
(2022)
Article
Energy & Fuels
Atteq Ur Rehman, Emmanuel P. Van Kerschaver, Erkan Aydin, Waseem Raja, Thomas G. Allen, Stefaan De Wolf
Summary: Explored the challenges and opportunities of monolithic perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells in industrial applications, including the characteristics of the front metal grid, the adoption of screen-printed metallization, cost estimation, and possible routes to reduce the silver content.
PROGRESS IN PHOTOVOLTAICS
(2023)
Editorial Material
Chemistry, Physical
Luca Mascaretti, Andrea Schirato, Tiziano Montini, Alessandro Alabastri, Alberto Naldoni, Paolo Fornasiero
Summary: This passage introduces some researchers from Italy. Their research areas include solar energy conversion, applications of nanomaterials, and environmental and energy-related applications.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Yage Zhao, Ming Zhang, Alessandro Alabastri, Peter Nordlander
Summary: Using the discrete dipole approximation and topology optimization, we have designed all dielectric metasurfaces that can efficiently focus light into deep subwavelength hotspots. These metasurfaces have superior light focusing capabilities compared to traditional lenses, and can greatly enhance processes that depend on light intensity, such as light-powered membrane distillation and photocatalysis. Our approach can also be applied to optimize metasurfaces for other functionalities, like nonlinear optics or photothermal conversion.
Article
Physics, Applied
Juan R. Deop-Ruano, Stephen Sanders, Alessandro Alabastri, Wilton J. M. Kort-Kamp, Diego A. R. Dalvit, Alejandro Manjavacas
Summary: Doped graphene nanostructures have strong and tunable plasmonic resonances, and can support lattice resonances when placed in a periodic array configuration. This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the response of periodic arrays of graphene nanodisks, and identifies the conditions for supporting lattice resonances. The theoretical framework developed in this work enables facile design and discovery of emerging properties of periodic arrays of graphene nanostructures.
PHYSICAL REVIEW APPLIED
(2022)
Article
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Michael de Oliveira, Marco Piccardo, Sahand Eslami, Vincenzo Aglieri, Andrea Toma, Antonio Ambrosio
Summary: To exploit the full potential of Laguerre-Gaussian beams, it is necessary to control the azimuthal and radial components of photons. We demonstrate the generation of high-purity Laguerre-Gaussian beams using a dielectric phase-amplitude metasurface, achieving precise control over phase and amplitude. The generated vortex beams outperform those generated with other phase-only metasurface approaches and highlight the formation of ghost orbital angular momentum orders.
Article
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Le-Yi Zhao, Hai Wang, Tian-Yu Liu, Fang-Fei Li, Qiang Zhou, Hai-Yu Wang
Summary: Most previous TMDC-photon coupling devices focused on the A exciton, while less attention has been given to the modulation of B exciton and Rydberg states, especially in monolayer WS2. This study demonstrates that the photoluminescence emission of WS2-microcavity coupling devices can be tailored in a broad visible wavelength range (490 nm-720 nm). The results show significantly enhanced B exciton emission and PL emission from the 2s Rydberg state, along with strongly coupled hybrid states based on B exciton. The findings provide important references for constructing highly efficient optoelectronic devices.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Chao Wang, Yinglin Wang, Yuwen Jia, Hai Wang, Xiaofei Li, Shuai Liu, Xinlu Liu, Hongbo Zhu, Haiyu Wang, Yichun Liu, Xintong Zhang
Summary: The surface ligand environment of colloidal quantum dots (CQDs) is crucial for their physicochemical, optical, and electronic properties. In this study, an organic-Pb precursor, lead(II) acetylacetonate (Pb(acac)(2)), is used to optimize the surface ligands of PbS CQDs, leading to reduced trap states and suppressed nonradiative recombination, resulting in highly efficient and stable CQDSCs.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Maxime Babics, Michele De Bastiani, Esma Ugur, Lujia Xu, Helen Bristow, Francesco Toniolo, Waseem Raja, Anand S. Subbiah, Jiang Liu, Luis V. Torres Merino, Erkan Aydin, Shruti Sarwade, Thomas G. Allen, Arsalan Razzaq, Nimer Wehbe, Michael F. Salvador, Stefaan De Wolf
Summary: Perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells have been recognized as a feasible commercial solution for highly efficient photovoltaics. However, their performance in outdoor environments has not been extensively studied. This research presents the performance of these cells over a full year in a hot and humid location. The study highlights the potential of perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells, but also identifies important factors that affect their efficiency in real-world conditions.
CELL REPORTS PHYSICAL SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Lujia Xu, Erkan Aydin, Michele De Bastiani, Maxime Babics, Jiang Liu, Randi Azmi, Mohammed Alamer, Michael F. Salvador, Wenzhu Liu, Thomas Allen, Fuzong Xu, Jingxuan Kang, Anand Subbiah, Wenbo Yan, Atteq Ur Rehman, Lyu Zhou, Waseem Raja, Qiaoqiang Gan, Zhengxin Liu, Stefaan De Wolf
Summary: The origins of parasitic heating in PV technologies based on silicon, perovskites, and their combination in monolithic tandems are studied. The cooling score (CS), as a new metric, is introduced to quantify heating losses. Silicon single-junction devices have the lowest CS due to their low bandgap and use of light-trapping structures, while perovskite single-junction devices show the highest CS due to their wider bandgap and high absorption coefficient. Perovskite/silicon tandems have reduced thermalization losses but also lower CS due to the use of light-trapping structures.
ADVANCED ENERGY MATERIALS
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Federica Granata, Noemi Pirillo, Alessandro Alabastri, Andrea Schirato, Luigi Bruno, Roberta Costa, Natalia Malara, Valentina Onesto, Maria Laura Coluccio, Mario Iodice, Giuseppe Coppola, Francesco Gentile
Summary: Soft plasmonic devices, made of materials such as polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), are low weight, low cost, flexible, and exhibit improved mechanical properties. These devices have the potential to serve as efficient biosensors in various fields, due to their ability to enhance the local electromagnetic field and maintain the features of conventional nano-optic structures.
MICRO AND NANO ENGINEERING
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Mu-Sen Song, Hai Wang, Zi-Fan Hu, Yu-Peng Zhang, Tian-Yu Liu, Hai-Yu Wang
Summary: 2D lead halide perovskites (LHPs) exhibit strong excitonic and spin-orbit coupling effects, resulting in easy spin injection. Additionally, their polaronic character and soft crystal lattice can extend the spin lifetime, making them attractive materials for spintronic applications. In this study, the spin dynamics of 2D PEA(2)PbI(4)(MAPbI(3))(n-l) thin films with different layers were investigated using temperature- and pump fluence-dependent circularly polarization-resolved transient absorption (TA) measurements. The results suggest that the spin depolarization mechanism gradually changes from the Maialle-Silva-Sham (MSS) mechanism to the polaronic states protection mechanism with increasing layer number from < n > = 1 to 3, influenced by the strength of Coulomb exchange interaction and the strength of polaronic effect. For < n > >= 4, the Elliot-Yafet (EY) impurities mechanism is proposed, where the formed polaronic states with free charge carriers no longer provide protection.
Article
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Michael de Oliveira, Marco Piccardo, Sahand Eslami, Vincenzo Aglieri, Andrea Toma, Antonio Ambrosio
Summary: To fully exploit the potential of Laguerre-Gaussian beams, it is crucial to control the azimuthal and radial components of the photons. In this study, we demonstrate the generation of high-purity Laguerre-Gaussian beams using a dielectric phase-amplitude metasurface. By vectorially structuring the input beam and projecting it onto an orthogonal polarization basis, any vortex beam can be sculpted in phase and amplitude.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Salvatore Macis, Maria Chiara Paolozzi, Annalisa D'Arco, Federica Piccirilli, Veronica Stopponi, Marco Rossi, Fabio Moia, Andrea Toma, Stefano Lupi
Summary: This paper investigates the extraordinary optical transmittance effect in silicon nitride membranes patterned with micrometric holes, confirming the origin of the effect as phonon-polariton excitation. The study provides a novel light-matter interaction functionality for membrane technologies.
Article
Optics
Le-Yi Zhao, Hai Wang, Hai-Yu Wang, Qiang Zhou, Xu-Lin Zhang, Tong Cui, Lei Wang, Tian-Yu Liu, Yu-Xiao Han, Yang Luo, Yuan-Yuan Yue, Mu-Sen Song, Hong-Bo Sun
Summary: The study highlights the potential of constructing multiple polarization polaritonic devices by building hybrid systems of TMDCs and SPPs in the strong coupling regime. By analyzing the spectra of different polarizations, it demonstrates the dynamics of valley polaritons and the long-lasting polarized effect in the strong coupling system.