Ionically Gated Small-Molecule OPV: Interfacial Doping of Charge Collector and Transport Layer.

We demonstrate an improvement in the performance of organic photovoltaic (OPV) systems based on small molecules by ionic gating via controlled reversible n-doping of multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) coated on fullerene electron transport layers (ETLs): C60 and C70. Such electric double-layer charging (EDLC) doping, achieved by ionic liquid (IL) charging, allows tuning of the electronic concentration in MWCNTs and the fullerene planar acceptor layers, increasing it by orders of magnitude. This leads to the decrease of the series and increase of the shunt resistances of OPVs and allows use of thick (up to 200 nm) ETLs, increasing the durability of OPVs. Two stages of OPV enhancement are described upon the increase of gating bias Vg: at small (or even zero) Vg, the extended interface of ILs and porous transparent MWCNTs is charged by gating, and the fullerene charge collector is significantly improved, becoming an ohmic contact. This changes the S-shaped J-V curve via improving the electron collection by an n-doped MWCNT cathode with an ohmic interfacial contact. The J-V curves further improve at higher gating bias Vg due to the increase of the Fermi level and decrease of the MWCNT work function. At the next qualitative stage, the acceptor fullerene layer becomes n-doped by electron injection from MWCNTs while ions of ILs penetrate into the fullerene. At this step, the internal built-in field is created within OPV, which helps in exciton dissociation and charge separation/transport, increasing further the Jsc and the fill factor. The ionic gating concept demonstrated here for most simple classical planar small-molecule OPV cells can be potentially applied to more complex highly efficient hybrid devices, such as perovskite photovoltaic with an ETL or a hole transport layer, providing a new way to tune their properties via controllable and reversible interfacial doping of charge collectors and transport layers.

Wide-angle light-trapping electrode for photovoltaic cells.

In this Letter, we experimentally show that a submicron layer of a transparent conducting oxide that may serve a top electrode of a photovoltaic cell based on amorphous silicon when properly patterned by notches becomes an efficient light-trapping structure. This is so for amorphous silicon thin-film solar cells with properly chosen thicknesses of the active layers (p-i-n structure with optimal thicknesses of intrinsic and doped layers). The nanopatterned layer of transparent conducting oxide reduces both the light reflectance from the photovoltaic cell and transmittance through the photovoltaic layers for normal incidence and for all incidence angles. We explain the physical mechanism of our light-trapping effect, prove that this mechanism is realized in our structure, and show that the nanopatterning is achievable in a rather easy and affordable way that makes our method of solar cell enhancement attractive for industrial adaptations.

An antenna model for the Purcell effect.

The Purcell effect is defined as a modification of the spontaneous emission rate of a quantum emitter at the presence of a resonant cavity. However, a change of the emission rate of an emitter caused by an environment has a classical counterpart. Any small antenna tuned to a resonance can be described as an oscillator with radiative losses, and the effect of the environment on its radiation can be modeled and measured in terms of the antenna radiation resistance, similar to a quantum emitter. We exploit this analogue behavior to develop a general approach for calculating the Purcell factors of different systems and various frequency ranges including both electric and magnetic Purcell factors. Our approach is illustrated by a general equivalent scheme, and it allows resenting the Purcell factor through the continuous radiation of a small antenna at the presence of an electromagnetic environment.

Demonstration of unusual nanoantenna array modes through direct reconstruction of the near-field signal.

We perform complex investigation of the distribution of electromagnetic fields in the vicinity of an array of silver nanoantennas, which can operate as an efficient light trapping structure in the visible spectral range. In theory, this array should support unusual collective modes that possess an advantageous distribution of local electric fields, ensuring both strong field localization beneath nanoantennas and a low level of optical losses inside the metal. Using an aperture-type near-field scanning optical microscope (NSOM), we obtain near-field patterns that show excellent agreement with the NSOM signal, directly reconstructed from rigorous numerical simulations using an approach based on the electromagnetic reciprocity theorem. The agreement between theory and experiment allows us to claim the first-time experimental verification of the existence of collective modes with such properties in an array of silver nanoantennas. The confirmation of this physical phenomenon opens the door to a new class of light-trapping structures for photovoltaics.

Superdirective dielectric nanoantennas.

We introduce the novel concept of superdirective nanoantennas based on the excitation of higher-order magnetic multipole moments in subwavelength dielectric nanoparticles. Our superdirective nanoantenna is a small Si nanosphere containing a notch, and is excited by a dipole located within the notch. In addition to extraordinary directivity, this nanoantenna demonstrates efficient radiation steering at the nanoscale, resulting from the subwavelength sensitivity of the beam radiation direction to variation of the source position inside the notch. We compare our dielectric nanoantenna with a plasmonic nanoantenna of similar geometry, and reveal that the nanoantenna's high directivity in the regime of transmission is not associated with strong localization of near fields in the regime of reception. Likewise, the absence of hot spots inside the nanoantenna leads to low dissipation in the radiation regime, so that our dielectric nanoantenna has significantly smaller losses and high radiation efficiency of up to 70%.

Topological darkness in self-assembled plasmonic metamaterials.

Self-assembled plasmonic metamaterials are fabricated from silver nanoparticles covered with a silica shell. These metamaterials demonstrate topological darkness or selective suppression of reflection connected to global properties of the Fresnel coefficients. The optical properties of the studied structures are in good agreement with effective medium theory. The results suggest a practical way of achieving high phase sensitivity in plasmonic metamaterials.

Wire metamaterials: physics and applications.

The physics and applications of a broad class of artificial electromagnetic materials composed of lattices of aligned metal rods embedded in a dielectric matrix are reviewed. Such structures are here termed wire metamaterials. They appear in various settings and can operate from microwaves to THz and optical frequencies. An important group of these metamaterials is a wire medium possessing extreme optical anisotropy. The study of wire metamaterials has a long history, however, most of their important and useful properties have been revealed and understood only recently, especially in the THz and optical frequency ranges where the wire media correspond to the lattices of microwires and nanowires, respectively. Another group of wire metamaterials are arrays and lattices of nanorods of noble metals whose unusual properties are driven by plasmonic resonances.

Subwavelength resolution for horizontal and vertical polarization by coupled arrays of oblate nanoellipsoids.

A structure comprising a coupled pair of two-dimensional arrays of oblate plasmonic nanoellipsoids in a dielectric host medium is proposed as a superlens in the optical domain for both horizontal and vertical polarizations. By means of simulations it is demonstrated that a structure formed by silver nanoellipsoids is capable of restoring subwavelength features of the object for both polarizations at distances larger than half wavelength. The bandwidth of subwavelength resolution is in all cases very large (above 13%).

Ultimate limit of resolution of subwavelength imaging devices formed by metallic rods.

It is demonstrated that the ultimate physical limit of resolution of novel imaging devices based on arrays of metallic rods is determined by the skin depth of the metal. Our theoretical and numerical results show that wire medium lenses may provide a unique solution for subwavelength imaging at frequencies up to the terahertz range and may enable image formation at a significant distance from the source plane.

Subwavelength metallic waveguides loaded by uniaxial resonant scatterers.

The dispersion properties of rectangular metallic waveguides periodically loaded by uniaxial resonant scatterers are studied with help of an analytical theory based on the local field approach, the dipole approximation, and the method of images. The cases of both magnetic and electric uniaxial scatterers with both longitudinal and transverse orientations with respect to the waveguide axis are considered. It is shown that in all considered cases waveguides support propagating modes below the cutoff of the hollow waveguide within some frequency bands near the resonant frequency of the individual scatterers. The modes are forward ones except the case of transversely oriented magnetic scatterers when the mode turns out to be backward. The described effects can be applied for the miniaturization of the guiding structures.

Homogenization of electromagnetic crystals formed by uniaxial resonant scatterers.

Dispersion properties of electromagnetic crystals formed by small uniaxial resonant scatterers (magnetic or electric) are studied using the local field approach. The goal of the study is to determine the conditions under which the homogenization of such crystals is possible. Therefore the consideration is limited to the frequency region where the wavelength in the host medium is larger than the lattice periods. It is demonstrated that, together with the known restriction for the homogenization related to the large values of the material parameters, there is an additional restriction related to their small absolute values. On the other hand, the homogenization becomes allowed in both cases of large and small material parameters for special directions of propagation. Two unusual effects inherent to the crystals under consideration are revealed: a flat isofrequency contour that allows subwavelength imaging using the canalization regime and birefringence of the extraordinary modes which can be used for beam splitting.