Nom i cognoms / Name and surname
Alejandro Goñi
Afiliació / Affiliation
Institut de Ciencia de Materials de Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC)
Programa de finançament europeu en que s’enmarca aquest projecte? / European funding programme in which this project is being carried out?
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Schemes
Títol del projecte / Project title
Plasmon-resonance driven thermionic emitters for improved solar energy harvesting — PLASMIONICO
Número del projecte / Project number
H2020-MSCA-IF-2018 — 839402
Breu explicació del projecte / Brief explanation of your project
PLASMIONICO aims to advance the sustainable production of electricity by harnessing near infrared (NIR) solar light, which is typically wasted in conventional solar cells. The key concept is the use of purposely designed interfaces between a nanostructured metal and a semiconductor to efficiently absorb NIR solar light. The absorbed photons would then excite surface plasmons which end up injecting electrons from the metal into the semiconductor, generating a photocurrent. The strategy of PLASMIONICO consists of the micro/nano-structuring of silicon wafers by engraving arrays of inverted pyramids covered with a thin gold film, readily fabricated by scalable nanoimprint lithography. For sub-micron-size pyramids the overall absorbance in the NIR spectral range can exceed 80%, which is due to the resonant excitation of surface plasmon sustained by the pyramidal array. We have by now optimised several structures and obtained very promising results as far as the photocurrents are concerned, demonstrating the great potential of this type of plasmonic/photonic Au/Si nanostructures for their implementation not only in NIR harvesting devices but also for application in infrared photo-detection, photo-catalysis, or cell photo-stimulation in the IR biological window, for instance.
Enllaç a la pàgina web del projecte / Link to your project website
https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/839402
Repte en que s’emmarca aquest projecte / Challenge within the framework of this project
3. Secure, clean and efficient energy