Plasmonic enhanced optical absorption in organic solar cells with metallic nanoparticles

Abstract

The plasmonic enhanced absorption of thin-film organic solar cell (OSC) with silver nanoparticles has been simulated and analyzed in the two-dimensional (2-D) and three-dimensional (3-D) simulation models by considering the position of nanoparticles inside the OSC and the incident angle and polarization of the incident light. It is found that, for TM polarization incidence, obvious optical absorption enhancement is obtained in both 2-D and 3-D cases. The absorption enhancement reaches more than 200% with nanoparticles deposited at the interface of PEDOT:PSS and P3HT:PCBM layer, which is larger than that with nanoparticles inside the active layer. However, for TE polarization incidence, the optical absorption is worsened rather than enhanced with metal nanostructures in the 2-D model, which is different with the results derived in the 3-D model. The absorption enhancement characteristics are also studied at oblique incidence, and the high absorption enhancement as high as 160% can be also obtained when the incident angle is increased to 60° in the 3-D model. By analyzing the mode profile in different circumstances, it could be concluded that the localized surface plasmon plays a significant role on improving the light absorption enhancement of OSC. © 2013 IEEE.