Absorption enhancement in perovskite cells by inclusion of gold nanoparticles

Sol Carretero-Palacios^a, Hernán Míguez^a

^aInstituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Sevilla (ICMS), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Universidad de Sevilla, C/ Américo Vespucio 49, Sevilla, Spain

International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics
Proceedings of International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics 2015 (HOPV15)

Roma, Italy, 2015 May 11th - 13th

Organizer: Filippo De Angelis

Poster, Sol Carretero-Palacios, 194
Publication date: 5th February 2015

Plasmonic nanoparticles (NPs) supporting localized surface plasmon resonances, display strong optical scattering and enhance light absorption in the embedding medium due to the associated high plasmonic nearfield. Over the last years, metal NPs embedded in the active layer of thin-films organic solar cells and dye-sensitized solar cells have been investigated as a possible way to improve their performance [1]. Currently, organic-inorganic halide perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have emerged as the new alternative for solar cell technology [2,3], reaching efficiency values surpassing the 20% while keeping low fabrication costs. Recent experimental work has shown enhanced photocurrent and efficiency enhancement in perovskite cells when gold NPs are integrated, but the origin of the enhancement is attributed to a mechanism of reduced exciton binding energy, rather than enhanced light absorption [4]. However, there is no systematic experimental or theoretical study on the absorption enhancement when metal NPs are included in thin films of perovskite. Here, we use Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) simulations to analyze the effect of gold NPs of different radius (r) ranging from 10 nm up to 120 nm (depending on the considered perovskite volume) included in thin films of perovskite. We calculate the absorptance in each specific material (gold or perovskite), and absorption enhancement weighted over the AM1.5 solar spectrum (sswia) in the perovskite medium. Our system consists on a perovskite layer with a glass substrate and a spiro-ometad cover, containing a single gold NP inside. We use optical constants experimentally attained in Ref[5], to account for the perovskite material. We analyze both the effect of the perovskite thickness and particle concentration by considering the effect of single particles in (L x L x L) or (L x 600 x 600) perovskite volumes, with L = 100, 200 or 300 nm. We find specific conditions for perovskite volume, concentration, and particle size for maximizing the perovskite absorption enhancement with embedded single particles. We find an optimum of sswia in a 200 x 200 x 200 nm perovskite volume containing 60 nm radius particles, displaying an almost 8% better performance in comparison with the same volume without gold nanoparticles.
(a) Absorptance of a perovskite volume of 200x200x200 nm in a glass – perovskite – spiroometad configuration, containing single gold nanoparticles of variable radius (as indicated in the figure). For comparison, the same volume without nanoparticles is displayed. The system is illuminated from the glass substrate. (b) Absorption enhancement weighted over the AM1.5 solar spectrum in the 400-800 nm spectral range (sswia enhancement) in the perovskite medium when gold nanoparticles of radius ranging from 10 nm up to 120 nm, for different perovskite volumes. Sswia > 1 represent absorption enhancement.
[1]. Harry A. Atwater, Albert Polman. Plasmonics for improved photovoltaic devices. Nature Materials 9, 205–213 (2010). [2]. Lee, M. M.; Teuscher, J.; Miyasaka, T.; Murakami, T. N.; Snaith, H. J. Efficient Hybrid Solar Cells Based on Meso-Superstructured Organometal Halide Perovskites. Science 2012, 338, 643-647. [3]. Green, M. A.; Ho-Baillie, A.; Snaith, H. J. The Emergence of Perovskite Solar Cells. Nature Photonics 2014, 8, 506-514. [4]. Zhang, W.; Saliba, M.; Stranks, S. D.; Sun, Y.; Shi, X.; Wiesner, U.; Snaith, H. J. Enhancement of Perovskite-Based Solar Cells Employing Core–Shell Metal Nanoparticles. Nano Lett., 2013, 13 (9), pp 4505–4510. [5]. Anaya, M.; Lozano, G.; Calvo, M.E.; Zhang, W.; Johnston, M.B.; Snaith, H.J.; Míguez, H. J. Phys. Chem. Lett., DOI: 10.1021/jz502351s

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