Physics Commons^™

Plasmonic And Photonic Designs For Light Trapping In Thin Film Solar Cells, Liming Ji

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Thin film solar cells are promising to realize cheap solar energy. Compared to conventional wafer cells, they can reduce the use of semiconductor material by 90%. The efficiency of thin film solar cells, however, is limited due to insufficient light absorption. Sufficient light absorption at the bandgap of semiconductor requires a light path more than 10x the thickness of the semiconductor. Advanced designs for light trapping are necessary for solar cells to absorb sufficient light within a limited volume of semiconductor. The goal is to convert the incident light into a trapped mode in the semiconductor layer.

In this dissertation, …

Infrared Cloaking, Stealth, And The Second Law Of Thermodynamics, D. P. Sheehan

Physics and Biophysics: Faculty Scholarship

Infrared signature management (IRSM) has been a primary aeronautical concern for over 50 years. Most strategies and technologies are limited by the second law of thermodynamics. In this article, IRSM is considered in light of theoretical developments over the last 15 years that have put the absolute status of the second law into doubt and that might open the door to a new class of broadband IR stealth and cloaking techniques. Following a brief overview of IRSM and its current thermodynamic limitations, theoretical and experimental challenges to the second law are reviewed. One proposal is treated in detail: a high …

Performance Analysis Of Nitride Alternative Plasmonic Materials For Localized Surface Plasmon Applications, U. Guler, Gururaj V. Naik, Alexandra Boltasseva, Vladimir M. Shalaev, Alexander V. Kildishev

U. Guler

We consider methods to define the performance metrics for different plasmonic materials to be used in localized surface plasmon applications. Optical efficiencies are shown to be better indicators of performance as compared to approximations in the quasistatic regime. The near-field intensity efficiency, which is a generalized form of the well-known scattering efficiency, is a more flexible and useful metric for local-field enhancement applications. We also examine the evolution of the field enhancement from a particle surface to the far-field regime for spherical nanoparticles with varying radii. Titanium nitride and zirconium nitride, which were recently suggested as alternative plasmonic materials in …

Spectral And Spatial Coherent Emission Of Thermal Radiation From Metal-Semiconductor Nanostructures, Shane N. Mcconnell

Theses and Dissertations

The spectral and spatial radiative properties of coherent thermal emission in the mid- and far-IR through the use of micro and nano-structured metal-semiconductor materials were designed and demonstrated experimentally. Using an implementation of the Rigorous Coupled Wave Analysis and Computer Simulation Technology (CST), two structures were designed to selectively emit at mid- and far-IR wavelengths, a 1-D truncated multilayer resonator and a 3-D hybrid photonic crystal (PC)-multilayer. A High Impulse Power Magnetron Sputtering (HIPIMS) deposition technique was used to fabricate two silver-germanium-silver (Ag-Ge-Ag) resonating structures with layer thicknesses of 6-240-160 nm for one sample and 6-700-200 nm for the other. …

Practicality Of Compensating The Loss In The Plasmonic Waveguides Using Semiconductor Gain Medium, Jacob B. Khurgin, Greg Sun

Physics Faculty Publications

We consider the issue of compensating the loss in plasmonic waveguides with semiconductor gain material and show that, independent of specific geometry, full loss compensation in plasmonic waveguides with significantly sub-wavelength light confinement (less than λ/4n) requires current density well in excess of 100 kA/cm². This high current density is attributed to the unavoidable shortening of recombination time caused by the Purcell effect inherent to sub-wavelength confinement. Consequently, an injection-pumped plasmonic laser that is truly sub-wavelength in all three dimensions (“spaser”) would have threshold current densities that are hard to obtain in any conceivable semiconductor device.