The Impact of parasitic loss on solar cells with plasmonic nano-textured rear reflectors.

Significant photocurrent enhancement has been demonstrated using plasmonic light-trapping structures comprising nanostructured metallic features at the rear of the cell. These structures have conversely been identified as suffering heightened parasitic absorption into the metal at certain resonant wavelengths severely mitigating benefits of light trapping. In this study, we undertook simulations exploring the relationship between enhanced absorption into the solar cell, and parasitic losses in the metal.

Interfacial engineering of hole transport layers with metal and dielectric nanoparticles for efficient perovskite solar cells.

In this work, we have demonstrated the incorporation of metal (Ag NPs) and dielectric nanoparticles (SiO NPs) into the hole transporting layers of inverted PSCs using facile deposition methods. Interfacial engineering in PSCs is accomplished by incorporating 50 nm Ag NPs or SiO NPs within the PEDOT:PSS interlayer. Dielectric SiO NPs were used for comparison purposes as a control sample to isolate morphological impacts without plasmonic effects.

Realistic Silver Optical Constants for Plasmonics.

Silver remains the preferred conductor for optical and near-infrared plasmonics. Many high-profile studies focus exclusively on performance simulation in such applications. Almost invariably, these use silver optical data either from Palik's 1985 handbook or, more frequently, an earlier Johnson and Christy (J&C) tabulation.

Re-evaluation of literature values of silver optical constants.

Silver has unique optical properties for topical applications such as plasmonics. The two most widely used silver optical data sets are the Palik handbook compilation and that determined by Johnson and Christy. Unfortunately these are inconsistent making realistic modelling of the likely performance of silver in optical applications difficult, with modelling producing either highly optimistic or very pessimistic results, depending on application.