Spectral coupling of fluorescent solar concentrators to plasmonic solar cells

Coupling luminescent solar concentrators (LSC) with plasmonic solar cells is a potential method to increase conversion efficiency while reducing cost associated with large-area photovoltaic and solar-tracking systems. Specifically, the emission spectrum of the fluorescent dye in the LSC can be matched to the absorption spectrum in the photovoltaic cell which can be tuned by surface plasmon resonance. Here we investigate this concept employing organic solar cells with plasmonic silver nanoparticles and polymethylmethacrylate-based solar concentrators with Lumogen Red dye. The absorption enhancement is predicted by Mie theory, taking size effect on dielectric properties into consideration. A factor of two increase of conversion efficiency is obtained when the absorption peak in the solar cell is tuned to match the emission peak of Lumogen Red dye. A similar approach could be employed to enhance the efficiency of other LSC-photovoltaic systems including those based on silicon solar cells with different surface plasmonic nanostructures. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3567928]