Enhanced photocurrent properties of solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells by grating coupled-surface plasmon resomamce

In this work, we report the fabrication of grating structure of solid-state electrolyte layers on dye-TiO₂ film by nanoimprint technique using PDMS stamp, and their application to photo-electric conversion devices. PDMS grating pattern is imprinted from BD-R or nickel templates. Silver electrode was deposited on the patterned solid-state electrolyte layers. Surface plasmon resonance excitation is observed on the fabricated solar cells by an irradiation of white light. The photo-electric conversion properties are measured to study the effect of two types of surface plasmon resonance excitations, i.e. propagating surface plasmon on Ag grating surface and localized surface plasmon from the Au nanoparticles on TiO₂.