Regensburg 2010 – scientific programme
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O: Fachverband Oberflächenphysik
O 59: Poster Session II (Nanostructures at surfaces: Dots, particles, clusters; Nanostructures at surfaces: arrays; Nanostructures at surfaces: Wires, tubes; Nanostructures at surfaces: Other; Plasmonics and nanooptics; Metal substrates: Epitaxy and growth; Metal substrates: Solid-liquid interfaces; Metal substrates: Adsoprtion of organic / bio molecules; Metal substrates: Adsoprtion of inorganic molecules; Metal substrates: Adsoprtion of O and/or H; Metal substrates: Clean surfaces; Density functional theory and beyond for real materials)
O 59.30: Poster
Wednesday, March 24, 2010, 17:45–20:30, Poster B1
Calculation of the up-conversion efficiency of Er3+ ions near noble-metal nanoparticles — Florian Hallermann1, Jan Christoph Goldschmidt2, Stefan Fischer2, Philipp Löper2, •Christian Maasem1, and Gero von Plessen1 — 1Institute of Physics (1A), RWTH Aachen University, 52056 Aachen, Germany — 2Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, Heidenhofstr. 2, 79110 Freiburg, Germany
In conventional silicon solar cells, the near-infrared part of the solar spectrum could possibly be exploited by making use of up-conversion processes. For instance, electrons could be excited from the ground state to a final state via intermediate states through sequential absorption of infrared photons. The radiative relaxation of the electrons from the final state generates photons whose energy is high enough to be absorbed in the silicon.
In this work, we show on the basis of model calculations how the up-conversion efficiency of Er3+ ions can be enhanced using spherical gold nanoparticles. The changes of the excitation rate in the vicinity of nanoparticles are computed for Er3+ ions homogeneously distributed around a single gold nanoparticle using Mie theory and a rate equation system. In addition, the relaxation rates of all involved excited states of the ions are changed due to additional radiative and nonradiative decay channels provided by the metallic nanoparticle. Using experimentally accessible transition rates of Er3+ ions, we semi-analytically calculate the effects these changes have on the up-conversion efficiency.