We design a fully stable numerical solution of the Maxwell’s equations with the transfer matrix method (TMM) to understand the interaction between an electromagnetic field and a finite, one-dimensional, non-periodic structure. Such an exact solution can be tailored from a conventional solution by choosing an adequate transformation between its reference systems, which induces a mapping…
Nanometer-scale tuning of the optical properties of prefabricated photonic crystals is achieved via layer-by-layer assembly of polyelectrolytes in the interstitial spaces of the photonic lattice. The key to the approach is using polyelectrolytes with controlled short chain lengths. This ensures they do not block the air voids, thereby maintaining uniform coating and thus precise and reproducible…
In order to enhance optical absorption, light trapping by multiple scattering is commonly achieved in dye sensitized solar cells by adding particles of a different sort. Herein we propose a theoretical method to find the structural parameters (particle number density and size) that optimize the conversion efficiency of electrodes of different thicknesses containing spherical inclusions…
A panchromatic specular reflector based dye solar cell is presented herein. Photovoltaic performance of this novel design is compared to that of cells in which standard diffuse scattering layers are integrated. The capability of the proposed multilayer structures to both emulate the broad band reflection of diffuse scattering layers of standard thickness (around 5 microns)…
This paper discusses the numerical exponential instability of the transfer matrix method (TMM) in the framework of the symmetry formalism. This numerical weakness is attributed to a series of increasingly extreme exponentials that appear in the TMM when it is applied to geometries involving total internal reflection (TIR) or very high absorption. We design a…
A new type of nanostructured selective ultraviolet (UV) reflecting mirror is presented. Periodic porous multilayers with photonic crystal properties are built by spin-coating-assisted layer-by-layer deposition of colloidal suspensions of nanoparticles of ZrO2 and SiO2 (electronic band gap at λ < 220 nm). These optical filters are designed to block well-defined wavelength ranges of the UVA,…
Herein we show experimental evidence of resonant photocurrent generation in dye-sensitized periodically nanostructured photoconductors, which is achieved by spectral matching of the sensitizer absorption band to different types of localized photon modes present in either periodic or broken symmetry structures. Results are explained in terms of the calculated spatial distribution of the electric field intensity…
Herein we report an experimental analysis of the performance of photonic crystal based dye solar cells (PC-DSCs) as the incident light angle moves away from the normal with respect to the cell surface. Nanoparticle multilayers operating at different wavelength ranges were coupled to the working electrode of a dye solar cell for this study. The…
