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Updated: May 17, 2026

Harvesting Solar Energy by Means of Charge-Separating Nanocrystals and Their Solids
Published on: August 23, 2012
Theory of three-dimensional nanocrescent light harvesters
Antonio I Fernández-Domínguez1, Yu Luo, Aeneas Wiener
1Department of Physics, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ. a.fernandez-dominguez@imperial.ac.uk
Abstract:
The optical properties of three-dimensional crescent-shaped gold nanoparticles are studied using a transformation optics methodology. The polarization insensitive, highly efficient, and tunable light harvesting ability of singular nanocrescents is demonstrated. We extend our approach to more realistic blunt nanostructures, showing the robustness of their plasmonic performance against geometric imperfections. Finally, we provide analytical and numerical insights into the sensitivity of the device to radiative losses and nonlocal effects. Our theoretical findings reveal an underlying relation between structural bluntness and spatial dispersion in this particular nanoparticle configuration.
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