The strong interest in solar energy motivates the scientific community to improve the energy conversion efficiency of solar panels (SPs). Indeed, the implementation of plasmonic nanoparticles (NPs) in SPs can enhance the absorption coefficient due to the well-known localized surface plasmons resonances (LSPR) and then increase SP efficiency. However, the silicon-based SPs do not absorb the solar radiation above 1000 nm wavelengths. One of the solutions is to use an enhancement of up-conversion photoluminescence (PL) coupled with a plasmonic NP [1]. Shortly, a fluorophore absorbing several photons simultaneously in the IR exhibits emission in the range of the silicon absorption band and this process can be enhanced by plasmonics.
Recently, it has been shown that 170 nm-diameter single gold nanocylinders (GNCs) have multi-resonant characteristics [2]. In this work, we report on the simultaneous excitation and emission enhancements of quantum dots up-conversion PL (two-photon photoluminescence (TPPL)) assisted by dipolar and quadrupolar modes of a single GNC.
Indeed, the use of radial and linear polarizations allows us to obtain singly or doubly enhanced TPPL respectively. We show that double resonantly enhanced up-conversion can be higher by 4-7 times than single resonant up-conversion.
References
[1] J.G. Smith, J.A. Faucheaux, P. K. Jain, "Plasmon resonances for solar energy harvesting: A mechanistic outlook," Nano Today, 10, 67-80 (2015).
[2] A. Movsesyan, A.-L. Baudrion, P.-M. Adam, "Revealing the hidden modes of a gold nanocylinder, " Journal of Phys. Chem. C, 122(41), 23651-23658 (2018).
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