International Journal of

In this article, the effect of plasmonics properties of metal nanorods and nanoparticles on solar cell performance were investigated and simulated. Due to the classic solar cell disadvantages, it seems that a plasmonic solar cell is one of these methods. In plasmonic solar cells, because of plasmonic effect, a high electric field builds around metal nanoparticles so that high conversion efficiency is available. In this study, it is shown that the near-field electromagnetic wave severely affects the generation rate, which handles the carrier’s generation in the solar cell equations. By manipulating the plasmonic properties of nanoparticles or nanorods in solar cells structure, distribution of the electromagnetic fields are altered. In this work, optical power and generation rate related to the poynting vector is calculated. So, for improving the generation rate as an important parameter in solar cells, the alteration of nanoparticles or nanorods material, shape, inter-distance between them and medium material, are done. Finally, the comparison between classical solar cell and our improved structure is performed.

This work presents ZnO nanorods coated multimode optical fiber sensing behavior in response to ethanol solution. The sensor operates based on modulation of light intensity which arises from manipulation of light interaction with the ambient environment in sensing region. For this purpose, two steps are experimentally applied here; etching and then coating fiber with ZnO nanorods to provide stronger evanescent waves causing an enhanced interaction. Long length of fiber (15 mm) was etched uniformly and then well-ordered ZnO nanorods were grown hydrothermally on the core of optical fiber. Fiber coated with ZnO demonstrated an enhanced sensing performances such that response time decreased to 0.6s, linearity increased to 97% and sensitivity improved. Applicable features of the proposed device such as fast response time and high linearity make it favorable candidate for fiber optic sensing applications.