Strong coupling of plasmon and nanocavity modes for dual-band, near-perfect absorbers and ultrathin photovoltaics

Journal Article · Fri Jan 29 00:00:00 EST 2016 · ACS Photonics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/acsphotonics.5b00651· OSTI ID:1249102

Hagglund, Carl ^[1]; Zeltzer, Gabriel ^[2]; Ruiz, Ricardo ^[2]; Wangperawong, Artit ^[1]; Roelofs, Katherine E. ^[1]; Bent, Stacey F. ^[1]

---

1. Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA (United States)
2. HGST, a Western Digital Company, San Jose, CA (United States)

In this study, when optical resonances interact strongly, hybridized modes are formed with mixed properties inherited from the basic modes. Strong coupling therefore tends to equalize properties such as damping and oscillator strength of the spectrally separate resonance modes. This effect is here shown to be very useful for the realization of near-perfect dual-band absorption with ultrathin (~10 nm) layers in a simple geometry. Absorber layers are constructed by atomic layer deposition of the heavy-damping semiconductor tin monosulfide (SnS) onto a two-dimensional gold nanodot array. In combination with a thin (55 nm) SiO₂ spacer layer and a highly reflective Al film on the back, a semiopen nanocavity is formed. The SnS-coated array supports a localized surface plasmon resonance in the vicinity of the lowest order antisymmetric Fabry–Perot resonance of the nanocavity. Very strong coupling of the two resonances is evident through anticrossing behavior with a minimum peak splitting of 400 meV, amounting to 24% of the plasmon resonance energy. The mode equalization resulting from this strong interaction enables simultaneous optical impedance matching of the system at both resonances and thereby two near-perfect absorption peaks, which together cover a broad spectral range. When paired with the heavy damping from SnS band-to-band transitions, this further enables approximately 60% of normal incident solar photons with energies exceeding the band gap to be absorbed in the 10 nm SnS coating. Thereby, these results establish a distinct relevance of strong coupling phenomena to efficient, nanoscale photovoltaic absorbers and more generally for fulfilling a specific optical condition at multiple spectral positions.

• Research Organization: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC)
• Grant/Contract Number: AC02-76SF00515
• OSTI ID: 1249102
• Journal Information: ACS Photonics, Vol. 3, Issue 3; ISSN 2330-4022
• Publisher: American Chemical Society
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY