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Marc A. Baldo. Heidel, Timothy David Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science 2008-05-19T16:00:13Z 2008-05-19T16:00:13Z 2006 2006 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/41608 214370779 Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2006. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 47-52). Despite significant improvements in the performance of organic photovoltaic devices in recent years, the tradeoff between light absorption and charge separation efficiency remains pervasive; increasing light absorption by increasing the device thickness leads to a decrease in exciton diffusion efficiency and vice versa. In this thesis, I demonstrate organic solar cells with an external light absorbing antenna. Light is absorbed by the external antenna and subsequently transferred into the photovoltaic cell via surface plasmon polariton modes in an interfacial thin silver contact. By decoupling the optical and electrical functions of the cell, this new architecture has the potential to circumvent the tradeoff between light absorption and charge separation efficiency. Non-radiative energy transfer is discussed and modeling finds that efficient energy transfer is mediated by surface plasmon polaritons. Devices with two very different antenna systems are demonstrated experimentally. Antennas with high photoluminescence efficiency are found to exhibit energy transfer efficiencies of approximately 50% while strongly absorbing antennas exhibit increases in photocurrent as high as 700% when compared to devices with non-functioning antennas even with very low photoluminescence efficiencies near 4%. These results suggest that this new device architecture could lead to significantly higher power conversion efficiencies by allowing the independent optimization of the optical and electrical components of organic photovoltaic cells. by Timothy David Heidel. M.Eng. 52 leaves eng Massachusetts Institute of Technology M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Surface plasmon polariton mediated energy transfer from external antennas into organic photovoltaic cells Thesis application/pdf false Publication unknown unknown <Publication xmlns="https://www.openaire.eu/cerif-profile/1.1/" id="d05b7f8f-d5f8-48ba-a72b-808ba74e168b"> <Type xmlns="https://www.openaire.eu/cerif-profile/vocab/COAR_Publication_Types">http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_1843</Type> <Language>eng</Language> <Title>Surface plasmon polariton mediated energy transfer from external antennas into organic photovoltaic cells</Title> <PublishedIn> <Publication> </Publication> </PublishedIn> <PublicationDate>2006</PublicationDate> <Authors> <Author> <DisplayName>Heidel, Timothy David</DisplayName> <Affiliation> <OrgUnit> </OrgUnit> </Affiliation> </Author> </Authors> <Editors> </Editors> <Publishers> <Publisher> <DisplayName>Massachusetts Institute of Technology</DisplayName> <OrgUnit /> </Publisher> </Publishers> <License>http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582</License> <Keyword>Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.</Keyword> <Abstract>Despite significant improvements in the performance of organic photovoltaic devices in recent years, the tradeoff between light absorption and charge separation efficiency remains pervasive; increasing light absorption by increasing the device thickness leads to a decrease in exciton diffusion efficiency and vice versa. In this thesis, I demonstrate organic solar cells with an external light absorbing antenna. Light is absorbed by the external antenna and subsequently transferred into the photovoltaic cell via surface plasmon polariton modes in an interfacial thin silver contact. By decoupling the optical and electrical functions of the cell, this new architecture has the potential to circumvent the tradeoff between light absorption and charge separation efficiency. Non-radiative energy transfer is discussed and modeling finds that efficient energy transfer is mediated by surface plasmon polaritons. Devices with two very different antenna systems are demonstrated experimentally. Antennas with high photoluminescence efficiency are found to exhibit energy transfer efficiencies of approximately 50% while strongly absorbing antennas exhibit increases in photocurrent as high as 700% when compared to devices with non-functioning antennas even with very low photoluminescence efficiencies near 4%. These results suggest that this new device architecture could lead to significantly higher power conversion efficiencies by allowing the independent optimization of the optical and electrical components of organic photovoltaic cells.</Abstract> <Access xmlns="http://purl.org/coar/access_right" > </Access> </Publication>