Impact of Ag@SiO2 core-shell nanoparticles on the photoelectric current of plasmonic inverted organic solar cells

• Published in: Synthetic metals 2018-05, Vol.239, p.22-28
• Main Authors: N'Konou, Kekeli, Chalh, Malika, Monnier, Virginie, Blanchard, Nicholas P., Chevolot, Yann, Lucas, Bruno, Vedraine, Sylvain, Torchio, Philippe
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Absorption enhancement; Ag@SiO2 core-shell nanospheres; Finite-difference time-domain method; Plasmonic solar cells
• ISSN: 0379-6779; 1879-3290
• DOI: 10.1016/j.synthmet.2018.03.003

[Display omitted] •Bare silver and silica-silver core-shell nanoparticles are synthetized.•Plasmonic inverted organic solar cells integrating silver-silica nanospheres are realized.•Plasmonic structures are modeled via a FDTD method.•An enhancement of 12% in photoelectric current is obtained for plasmonic solar cells.•The dielectric shell allows to obtain increased optical absorption without degradation of electrical properties. We report on the influence of silver-silica core-shell nanoparticles (Ag@SiO2 NPs) and bare silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) on the photoelectric current of plasmonic inverted organic solar cells. The synthesized Ag@SiO2 NPs are deposited on a zinc oxide layer. The optimized plasmonic devices concern the Ag@SiO2 NPs with 5 nm shell thickness and present the highest short-circuit current density of 13.44 mA/cm2, enhanced by 12% compared to the reference device. Such enhancements can mainly be attributed to the localized surface plasmon resonance and to the light scattering effect originating from Ag NPs and Ag@SiO2 NPs. Finite-difference time-domain simulation reveals that a thin shell thickness facilitates the extension of a strong localized enhanced electromagnetic field in the active layer, as confirmed by measured and simulated optical absorption and photoluminescence measurements. Furthermore, AFM images present a well-distributed Ag@SiO2 NPs array on the ZnO films, which contributes to such an improvement.