The increasing prevalence of glass windows in modern buildings has raised the demand for solar control windows that possess climate-appropriate properties. Glass windows made of abundant and low-cost materials which can both decrease the heating energy consumption as well as enhance the light climate indoors would sufficiently meet the goals of economical yet uplifting buildings. The main objective of this thesis was to examine whether a plasmonic hybrid interface, comprising three layers of thin films (gold nanoparticles of approximately 10 nm, ZrO2 with a thickness range of 20-35 nm, and ZnO with a thickness of approximately 20 nm), could achieve the upconversion of infrared light to visible light through a multiphoton absorption process in the ZnO layer. If successful, this configuration, in conjunction with an established layer capable of downconverting ultraviolet light to visible light, would be applied to commercially available glass windows to enhance the solar utilization and improve indoor lighting conditions. ZnO was selected as the upconversion material due to its wide emission range in the visible spectrum, indicative of intermediate electron states between the valence and conduction bands suitable for excitation. The objective of the plasmonic material, the gold nanoparticles, was to increase the probability of the upconversion process by utilizing the enhanced electric field resulting from plasmons localized at the surface of the gold nanoparticles. ZrO2 served as a separator layer between the plasmonic material and the ZnO, to effectively preventing charge transfer and ensuring that any upconversion or other photoluminescence processes were purely photonic. Various optical experimental techniques were employed in this study to assess any upconversion, plasmon enhancement, and map the intermediate electron states of the ZnO. The ZrO2 layer successfully prevented charge transfer between the layers. However, the influence ofthe gold’s surface plasmons and it’s enhanced electric field on ZnO emission varied among the samples, likely due to the synthesis processes. Ultimately, the plasmonic hybrid interface investigated in this thesis did not exhibit detectable upconversion when illuminated with either 600 or 750 nm light. Further research is necessary to increase the density of intermediate electron states in ZnO, along with optimization of the thin film synthesis to enhance plasmon effects. These advancements would augment the probability of detectable upconversion.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-504938 |
| Date | January 2023 |
| Creators | Gudmundsson, Axel |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Solcellsteknik, Uppsala universitet, Fysikalisk kemi |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | UPTEC Q, 1401-5773 ; 23003 |
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