There has been much recent interest in the application of plasmonics to improve the efficiency of silicon solar cells. In this paper we use finite difference time domain calculations to investigate the placement of hemispherical gold nanoparticles on the rear surface of a silicon solar cell. The results indicate that nanoparticles protruding into the silicon, rather than into air, have a larger scattering efficiency and diffuse scattering into the semiconductor. This finding could lead to improved light trapping within a thin silicon solar cell device.
Metal-induced fluorescence enhancement (MIFE) is a promising strategy for increasing the sensitivity of fluorophores used in biological sensors. This study uses the finite-difference time-domain technique to predict the fluorescent enhancement rate of a fluorophore molecule in close proximity to a gold or silver spherical nanoparticle. By considering commercially available fluorescent dyes the computed results are compared with the published experimental data. The results show that MIFE is a complex coupling process between the fluorophore molecule and the metal nanoparticle. Nevertheless using computational electromagnetic techniques to perform calculations it is possible to calculate, with reasonable accuracy, the fluorescent enhancement. Using this methodology it will be possible to consider different shaped metal nanoparticles and any supporting substrate material in the future, an important step in building reliable biosensors capable of detecting low levels of proteins tagged with fluorescence molecules.
Copper zinc tin sulfide (CZTS) is a promising material for harvesting solar energy due to its abundance and non-toxicity. However, its poor performance hinders their wide application. In this paper gold (Au) nanoparticles are successfully incorporated into CZTS to form Au@CZTS core-shell nanostructures. The photocathode of Au@CZTS nanostructures exhibits enhanced optical absorption characteristics and improved incident photon-to-current efficiency (IPCE) performance. It is demonstrated that using this photocathode there is a significant increase of the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of a photoelectrochemical solar cell of 100% compared to using a CZTS without Au core. More importantly, the PCE of Au@CZTS photocathode improved by 15.8% compared to standard platinum (Pt) counter electrode. The increased efficiency is attributed to plasmon resonance energy transfer (PRET) between the Au nanoparticle core and the CZTS shell at wavelengths shorter than the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) peak of the Au and the semiconductor bandgap.