Related papers: Plasmon Enhanced Solar-to-Fuel Energy Conversion
Thin films are preferred for high photocurrent conversion efficiency, but strong photon absorption at photon energies below the bandgap (near and shortwave infrared) typically requires thicker semiconductor layers. To address this tradeoff,…
Coupled surface plasmon/phonon polaritons and hyperbolic modes are known to enhance radiative transport across nanometer vacuum gaps but usually require identical materials. It becomes crucial to achieve strong near-field energy transfer…
Hybrid plasmonic devices involve a nanostructured metal supporting localized surface plasmons to amplify light-matter interaction, and a non-plasmonic material to functionalize charge excitations. Application-relevant epitaxial…
Photogalvanic solar cells, the original dye based solar cell, have yet to fulfill their promise as a low fabrication cost, scalable energy conversion system. The efficient performance of photogalvanic cells relies on high dye solubility and…
Charge injection into a molecule on a metallic interface is a key step in many photo-activated reactions. The energy barrier for injection is paralleled with the lowest particle and hole addition energies. We employ Green's function…
The excitation of surface plasmons with ultra-intense ($I\sim 5\times 10^{19}$ W/cm$^2$), high contrast ($\sim 10^{12}$) laser pulses on periodically-modulated solid targets has been recently demonstrated to produce collimated bunches of…
Following the lifespan of optical excitations from their creation to decay into photons is crucial in understanding materials optical properties. Macroscopically, techniques such as the photoluminescence excitation spectroscopy provide…
It is shown that static longitudinal and transverse electric fields can significantly alter electron acceleration by a long laser beam in a sub-critical plasma, enabling generation of super-ponderomotive electrons. The role of the plasma…
While silicon solar cells dominate global photovoltaic energy production, their continued improvement is hindered by the single junction limit. One potential solution is to use molecular singlet exciton fission to generate two electrons…
A graphene layer on top of a dielectric can dramatically influence ability of the material to radiative heat transfer. This property of graphene is used to improve the performance and reduce costs of near-field thermophotovoltaic cells.…
The applications of plasmonics to energy transfer from free-space radiation to molecules are currently limited to the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum due to the intrinsic optical properties of bulk noble metals that support…
The short wavelength of graphene plasmons relative to the light wavelength makes them attractive for applications in optoelectronics and sensing. However, this property limits their coupling to external light and our ability to create and…
Superponderomotive-energy electrons are observed experimentally from the interaction of an intense laser pulse with a relativistically transparent target. For a relativistically transparent target, kinetic modeling shows that the generation…
The interaction of free electrons with electromagnetic excitation is the fundamental mechanism responsible for ultra-strong confinement of light that, in turn, enables biosensing, near-field microscopy, optical cloaking, sub-wavelength…
Graphene nanostructures that support surface plasmons have been utilized to create a variety of dynamically tunable light modulators, motivated by theoretical predictions of the potential for unity absorption in resonantly-excited monolayer…
The light absorption of [001] grown single-crystalline silicon wafers can be enhanced by chemical etching with potassium hydroxide resulting in a pyramid-like surface texture. Alongside this advantageous property in the context of solar…
Being a source of clean and renewable energy, the possibility to convert solar radiation in electric current with high efficiency is one of the most important topics of modern scientific research. Currently the exploitation of interaction…
Implementation of resonant colloidal nanoparticles for improving performance of organometal halide perovskites solar cells is highly prospective approach, because it is compatible with the solution processing techniques used for any organic…
Photosynthesis is a plausible pathway for the sustenance of a substantial biosphere on an exoplanet. In fact, it is also anticipated to create distinctive biosignatures detectable by next-generation telescopes. In this work, we explore the…
We study the collective photon decay of multiple quantum emitters embedded in a thin high-index dielectric layer such as hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), with and without a metal substrate. We first explore the significant role that guided…