Manuel J. Mendes Website

Plasmonic light trapping in thin film silicon solar cells is a promising route to achieve high efficiency with reduced volumes of semiconductor material. In this paper, we study the enhancement in the opto-electronic performance of thin a-Si:H solar cells due to the light scattering effects of plasmonic back reflectors (PBRs), composed of self-assembled silver nanoparticles (NPs), incorporated on the cells{&}{\#}x2019; rear contact. The optical properties of the PBRs are investigated according to the morphology of the NPs, which can be tuned by the fabrication parameters. By analyzing sets of solar cells built on distinct PBRs we show that the photocurrent enhancement achieved in the a-Si:H light trapping window (600 {&}{\#}x2013; 800 nm) stays in linear relation with the PBRs diffuse reflection. The best-performing PBRs allow a pronounced broadband photocurrent enhancement in the cells which is attributed not only to the plasmon-assisted light scattering from the NPs but also to the front surface texture originated from the conformal growth of the cell material over the particles. As a result, remarkably high values of Jsc and Voc are achieved in comparison to those previously reported in the literature for the same type of devices.

© 2014 IOP Publishing Ltd. This work reports on highly efficient surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) constructed on low-cost, fully recyclable and highly reproducible cardboard plates, which are commonly used as disposable packaging material. The active optical component is based on plasmonic silver nanoparticle structures separated from the metal surface of the cardboard by a nanoscale dielectric gap. The SERS response of the silver (Ag) nanoparticles of various shapes and sizes were systematically investigated, and a Raman enhancement factor higher than 106for rhodamine 6G detection was achieved. The spectral matching of the plasmonic resonance for maximum Raman enhancement with the optimal local electric field enhancement produced by 60 nm-sized Ag NPs predicted by the electromagnetic simulations reinforces the outstanding results achieved. Furthermore, the nanoplasmonic SERS substrate exhibited high reproducibility and stability. The SERS signals showed that the intensity variation was less than 5{%}, and the SERS performance could be maintained for up to at least 6 months.

A colloidal deposition technique is presented to construct long-range ordered hybrid arrays of self-assembled quantum dots and metal nanoparticles. Quantum dots are promising for novel opto-electronic devices but, in most cases, their optical transitions of interest lack sufficient light absorption to provide a significant impact in their implementation. A potential solution is to couple the dots with localized plasmons in metal nanoparticles. The extreme confinement of light in the near-field produced by the nanoparticles can potentially boost the absorption in the quantum dots by up to two orders of magnitude. In this work, light extinction measurements are employed to probe the plasmon resonance of spherical gold nanoparticles in lead sulfide colloidal quantum dots and amorphous silicon thin-films. Mie theory computations are used to analyze the experimental results and determine the absorption enhancement that can be generated by the highly intense near-field produced in the vicinity of the gold nanoparticles at their surface plasmon resonance. The results presented here are of interest for the development of plasmon-enhanced colloidal nanostructured photovoltaic materials, such as colloidal quantum dot intermediate-band solar cells.

Abstract.  The concept of intermediate band solar cell (IBSC) is, apparently, simple to grasp. However, since the idea was proposed, our understanding has improved and some concepts can now be explained more clearly than when the concept was initially introduced. Clarifying these concepts is important, even if they are well known for the advanced researcher, so that research efforts can be driven in the right direction from the start. The six pieces of this work are: Does a miniband need to be formed when the IBSC is implemented with quantum dots? What are the problems for each of the main practical approaches that exist today? What are the simplest experimental techniques to demonstrate whether an IBSC is working as such or not? What is the issue with the absorption coefficient overlap and the Mott's transition? What would the best system be, if any?