Optics and Photonics Society of Iran

In this work, the performance of PTB7: PCBM polymer solar cells in the presence of Ag, Ag@SiO₂ and SiO₂@Ag@SiO₂ plasmonic nanoparticles were investigated using coupled optical-electrical simulations. The triple core-shell nanostructure of SiO₂@Ag@SiO₂ has been proposed as a high-efficiency plasmonic nanoparticle to improve the performance of polymer solar cells. The proposed nanostructure with the benefit of plasmonic hybridization offers better plasmonic properties than its solid counterparts. By adding a square array of these nanoparticles in the optimal case, thanks to the increase in light trapping and optical absorption, the cell efficiency has increased from 5.67% to 9.23%.