Plasmon resonance energy transfer and plexcitonic solar cell

Area of Science:

• Nanophotonics and Optoelectronics
• Plasmonics and Excitonics
• Photovoltaic Nanodevices

Background:

• Direct hot electron injection in plasmonic devices is inefficient.
• Fano resonance offers efficient energy transfer from plasmons to molecular excitons.
• Organic dyes show better exciton injection efficiency than hot electrons.

Purpose of the Study:

• Investigate enhanced light-harvesting of chlorophyll-a coupled to gold nanostructures via Fano resonance.
• Explore the role of strong plasmon-exciton coupling in photovoltaic performance.
• Optimize plexciton-solar cells (SSCs) for improved energy conversion.

Main Methods:

• Utilized Fano resonance in strongly coupled plasmon-exciton systems.
• Employed gold nanostructured films and chlorophyll-a molecules.
• Monitored ultrafast dynamical processes and photocurrent flows.
• Tuned Fano factor and anti-resonance wavelengths.

Main Results:

• Achieved significant enhancement of local fields and plasmon resonance energy transfer.
• Demonstrated improved efficiency in plexciton-SSCs with ultrathin TiO2 films.
• Observed output power exceeding the sum of individual plasmon- and exciton-SSCs.
• Provided insights into energy and electron transfer in plasmon-exciton hybrids.

Conclusions:

• Strong plasmon-exciton coupling via Fano resonance enhances light-harvesting and photovoltaic efficiency.
• Plexciton-SSCs demonstrate superior performance compared to individual plasmon- and exciton-SSCs.
• This approach offers a new strategy for designing efficient photovoltaic nanodevices.