IR functionalized photovoltaic devices

The present project is based on a recent breakthrough [1] in infrared (IR) assisted solar cell technology. The author of this proposal could show that by cascading the superlensing effect of microlens arrays with the utrastrong field generation by plasmonic nanoparticles, an enhancement of infrared upconversion luminescence by more than four orders of magnitude could be achieved.

A previous device úsing microlens assisted upcconversion particles could show an efficiency increase of a dye solar cell by more than 10 %. With this newly discovered cascading principle we project an efficiency increase of solar cells up to 20 – 25 %. The compound system - plasmonic and upconversion nanoparticles and microlens arrays are prepared in thin films that can be used as coating directly on various types of solar cells, including silicon, dye-sensitized and perovskite solar cells, without changing their existing constructs.

1. Light: Science & Applications 9, 184 (2020)