Organic bulk heterojunction photovoltaic devices with surfactant-free Au nanoparticles embedded in the active layer

Abstract

The effect of embedding uncapped Au nanoparticles, produced by ultrafast laser ablation in liquids, in the active layer of bulk heterojunction organic photovoltaic devices was systematically studied. The nanoparticles incorporation leads to a power conversion efficiency improvement of 40%. This efficiency gain was attributed to enhanced light harvesting and subsequent exciton generation rate into the photoactive layer due to localized surface plasmon resonance and scattering effects. This argument was supported by the combinatorial study of spectroscopic analysis and photon to-electron conversion efficiency measurements of the devices.