TY - JOUR TI - Light management in ultra-thin conjugated polymer layers using plasmonic nanostructures for optoelectronic applications DO - https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/T3R78HFD PY - 2016 AB - Plasmonics is a research area encompassing the fields of optics and nanoelectronics by confining light with relative large free-space wavelength to the nanometer scale. Specifically, plasmonic metal nanostructures have the potential to manage and enhance optical electromagnetic fields, making them essential tools for applications in fields such as photovoltaics, nano-optical sensors, enhanced information storage, light-emitting devices and photocatalysis. Also, the relatively high carrier transport rate, lower cost and synthetic tenability have given rise to an increasing amount of research on ultra-thin conjugated polymer films based optoelectronic devices, which indicates its essential role in next generation devices. Here, we demonstrate the deposition of gold monopole nanoantenna arrays onto sub-50 nm poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) films on Ag substrate can result in significant absorption enhancement (>12 at the P3HT band edge) and spectral broadening (more than 250 nm increase) relative to P3HT/Ag films without plasmonic nanorod arrays. Full-field electromagnetic simulations are used to identify the modes of the plasmonic nanorod array/P3HT/Ag film system. In our case, gap modes are the primary contributor to the local field enhancement, hence the absorption enhancement in polythiophene thin film “gap” region. We then seek to validate the gap modes effect using single nanoparticle (NP) spectroscopy in the Ag NP/P3HT/Ag film system. Furthermore, future proposed work including photocurrent measurement through fabrication of ultra-thin nanoantenna incorporated organic photovoltaic devices, internal photoemission and light emitting diodes will be discussed. KW - Chemistry and Chemical Biology KW - Nanostructures KW - Plasmons (Physics) LA - eng ER -