Organic-inorganic lead halide based perovskite solar cells have received broad interest due to their merits of low fabrication cost, a low temperature solution process, and high energy conversion efficiencies. Rare-earth (RE) ion doped nanomaterials can be used in perovskite solar cells to expand the range of absorption spectra and improve the stability due to its upconversion and downconversio...

Surface plasmons, which exist along the interface of a metal and a dielectric, have been proposed as an efficient alternative method for light trapping in solar cells during the past ten years. With unique properties such as superior light scattering, optical trapping, guide mode coupling, near field concentration, and hot-electron generation, metallic nanoparticles or nanostructures can be tai...

The conversion of sunlight into electricity using solar cells has attracted very much attention during the last decades. Solar energy is clean, abundant and renewable. Solar cells found applications in many different fields such as in calculators, solar lamps and even on spacecraft and satellites. Historically, conventional solar cells were built from inorganic materials. The efficiency of such...

We report organic solar cells with a photonic crystal nanostructure embossed in the photoactive bulk heterojunction layer, a topography that exhibits a 3-fold enhancement of the absorption in specific regions of the solar spectrum in part through multiple excitation resonances. The photonic crystal geometry is fabricated using a materials-agnostic process called PRINT wherein highly ordered arr...

We propose an organic solar cell structure with combined silver gratings consisting of both a front and a back grating. This combination provides multiple, semi-independent enhancement mechanisms which act additively, so that a broadband absorption is obtained. Both gratings couple the incident light into various plasmonic modes, showing a more localized or propagating character respectively. I...

The photovoltaic field is currently experiencing the "perovskite revolution". These materials have been known for decades, but only recently have they been applied in solid-state solar cells to obtain outstanding power conversion efficiencies. Given that the variety of perovskites used so far is limited, a lot of attention has been devoted to the development of suitable organic charge-transport...

This project was aimed at realizing a high efficiency organic photovoltaic (PV) device using nanoscale metallic features to enhance the overall cell performance. The goals of the project were threefold. The first aim was to develop transparent high-sheetconductivity nanopatterned metal films for use as transparent conductors that allow more light to enter a PV cell and enable parallel subcell c...

In this project, we aim at combining the molecular design and device fabrication expertise of Bao, theoretical simulation expertise of Aspuru-Guzik, structural characterization expertise of Toney, and the large distributed computing power of IBM’s World Community Grid (WCG) to rationally design organic semiconductors for solar cells from a completely new angle. Instead of molecular design from ...

In this project, we aim at combining the molecular design and device fabrication expertise of Bao, theoretical simulation expertise of Aspuru-Guzik, structural characterization expertise of Toney, and the large distributed computing power of IBM’s World Community Grid (WCG) to rationally design organic semiconductors for solar cells from a completely new angle. Instead of molecular design from ...

Energy shortage has become a worldwide issue in the 21st century (Lior, 2008). The urge to look for renewable energy to replace fossil fuel has driven substantial research effort into the energy sector (Hottel, 1989). The solar energy has enormous potential to take the place due to its vast energy stock and availability worldwide (Balzani et al., 2008). Conventional solar energy conversion devi...