表面等离子体共振增强的新型高效太阳能电池

The major goal of this project is to develop new types of palsmon-enhanced solar cells with lower cost and higher efficiency. Surface plasmon resonance (SPR), förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) and internal electron emission (IEE) have been used for guiding light, energy and charge carriers at the nanoscale. By using new materials (graphene, quantum dots, plasmonic nanoparticles, semiconducting nanowires, etc) and new technologies (electron beam lithography, etc), these physical effects could provide new opportunities to design novel solar cells. On the basis of the previous works in nanomaterials synthesis and device fabrications in our lab, in this project we will exploit the use of plasmonic enhancement in combination with FRET and IEE to construct new types of solar cells. Gaphene/silicon nanowires-based field effect transistors (FETs) will be made to investigate the plasmonic enhancement effect and charge injection or energy transfer at the interface. After understanding the interfacial mechanisms, we will construct new types of plasmon-enhanced solar cells, for example, plasmon-enhanced internal electron emission-based graphene solar cells, plasmon-enhanced internal electron emission/Schottky tandem solar cells and plasmon-enhanced hybrid resonance organic-inorganic solar cells. This project might offer new routes for the development of high-efficiency photovoltaic technology.

本项目目的在于发展表面等离子体共振增强的新型太阳能电池，以期提高其光电转换效率，降低成本，增强其实用性。表面等离子体共振、共振能量转移、内发射等物理原理可以实现对光、能量和光生载流子的调控。石墨烯、量子点、半导体纳米线等新材料的发现和电子束刻蚀等新技术的应用为将这些物理原理应用到太阳能电池中提供了新的机遇。本研究项目基于实验室所具有的材料制备工艺和器件加工基础，利用内发射和共振能量转移原理将表面等离子体共振增强效应应用到新型太阳能电池设计中，用场效应器件探索其中有关共振增强、能量传输、界面电荷注入的规律，构建等离子体共振增强石墨烯基内发射太阳能电池、等离子体共振增强内发射/肖特基叠层太阳能电池、等离子体共振增强共振能量转移的有机无机杂合太阳能电池等新型太阳能电池体系。本项目可为发展新型太阳能电池提供新的思路。

本研究项目利用内发射和共振能量转移原理将表面等离子体共振增强效应应用到新型太阳能电池设计中，构建等离子体共振增强石墨烯基内发射太阳能电池、等离子体共振增强内发射/肖特基叠层太阳能电池、等离子体共振增强共振能量转移的有机无机杂合太阳能电池等新型太阳能电池体系。2014-2016年开展的主要研究内容如下：1）提出了光电转换新机制—同向传输选择性电子隧穿，建立了新型太阳能电池新模型；2）在半导体层/介电层界面构筑了热电子选择性隧穿势垒，实现了光对晶体管界面能级的调控，制备了光写入/电擦除的非挥发性存储器件；3）率先从实验角度出发揭示了光增益与电极间距、工作电压之间的理论关系。发表SCI学术论文13篇，其中影响因子大于8的论文10篇，包括Science 1篇、Chem. Rev. 1篇、Acc. Chem. Res. 1篇、Nano Lett. 1篇、Adv. Mater. 1篇、ACS Nano 1篇、Adv. Energy Mater. 1篇、Nano Energy 1篇等。申请专利1项，批准专利1项。这些研究大大简化了传统染敏太阳能电池的结构，具有结构简单、光电转化效率高、材料选择自由多样，制备价格低廉等优点，预计在未来的太阳能利用领域有着巨大应用潜力。