Plasmonic hole arrays for combined photon and electron management

Material architectures that balance optical transparency and electrical conductivity are highly sought after forthin-filmdevice applications. However, these are competingproperties, since the electronic structure that gives rise to conductivity typically also leads to optical opacity. Nanostructuredmetalfilms that exhibit extraordinary optical transmission, while at the same time being electrically continuous, offer considerable flexibility in the design of their transparency and resistivity. Here, we present design guidelines formetalfilms perforated with arrays of nanometer-scale holes, discussing the consequences of the choice of nanostructure dimensions, of the type ofmetal, and of the underlying substrate on their electrical, optical, and interfacial properties. We experimentally demonstrate that suchfilms can be designed to have broad-band optical transparency while being an order of magnitude more conductive than indium tin oxide. Prototypicalphotovoltaic devices constructed with perforatedmetal contacts convert ∼18% of the incident photons, compared to

Source: Applied Physics Letters - November 14, 2016 Category: Physics Authors: Andreas C. Liapis, Matthew Y. Sfeir and Charles T. Black Source Type: research