Investigation of the amplification of light conversion efficiency at dye-sensitized TiO2 solar cells coupled with photonic crystals compared to photonic glass

Remi Fayad^a, Lara Halaoui^a

^aAmerican University of Beirut, Chemistry, Beirut, 11, Lebanon

International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics
Proceedings of International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics 2015 (HOPV15)

Roma, Italy, 2015 May 11th - 13th

Organizer: Filippo De Angelis

Poster, Remi Fayad, 420
Publication date: 5th February 2015

Coupling a nc-TiO₂ film to an inverse opal (i-TiO₂-o) with a stop band centered at 600 nm resulted in gains in the photon-to-current conversion efficiency in a dye-sensitized solar cell within both the stop band and dielectric band. We investigate in this study the cause of amplification within the dielectric band by comparing to nc-TiO₂ coupled with a disordered inverse TiO₂ film, coined inverse TiO₂ glass (i-TiO₂-g), fabricated to have the exact monodisperse air-hole size by replication of a disordered polystyrene photonic glass template assembled in the presence of salt. A significant ~ two-fold average enhancement in the photon-to-current conversion efficiency was observed within the dielectric band at 600-i-TiO₂-o/nc-TiO₂ bilayer electrode under front-wall and back-wall illumination, greater than the gain measuredwithin stop band frequencies. Transmission spectra show a decrease in transmission upon adding the nc-TiO₂ overlayer to the inverse opal. Gains at nc-TiO₂coupled to the disordered i-TiO₂-g film featured a lower average gain in front-wall illumination, and no gain in back-wall illumination. While only a small gain was measured at the 600-i-TiO₂-o stand-alone at the red edge of stop band, the i-TiO₂-g electrode exhibited significant enhancement per adsorbed dye molecule compared to nc-TiO₂ film in the entire visible spectrum, attributed to multiple internal scattering trapping light in this film. It is concluded that photonic effects dependent on the presence of periodicity in the photonic crystal cause localization of light within the nc-TiO₂ coupled to 600-i-TiO₂-o not only within the stop band but also the dielectric band. This effect is lost upon significantly disordering the structure while keeping the same air hole size.

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