PMEG and PMPG (plasmonic multi-electron and multi-photon generation) for PV

We have recently shown that by embedding nanoparticles possessing properly-tuned plasmonic resonances in the small gap semiconductor absorber of a solar cell that it is possible to achieve significant plasmonic multi-electron generation (PMEG)[1] . Synthesis efforts are underway to construct a perovskite-nanoparticle system in order to experimentally verify the viability of PMEG to increase the efficiency of the solar cell.
An additional method of using nanoparticles to enhance the efficiency of solar cells by utilizing the downconverting properties of nanoparticles, plasmonic multi-photon generation (PMPG) is also being investigated. In downconversion, high energy incident photons are converted into multiple lower energy photons that more closely correspond to the bandgap of a solar cell. This should simultaneously increase the efficiency of the cell and, in the case of perovskites, increase the long term stability, as these absorbers are negatively impacted by incident UV light. Synthesis of this system is also underway.

[1] Jiantao Kong, Xueyuan Wu, Xin Wang, Michael J. Naughton, and Krzysztof Kempa. Phys. Rev. Materials 3, 065201 (2019)