Local field enhancement near spherical nanoparticles in absorbing media.

It is shown by numerical simulation that the enhancement of the field near metallic nanoparticles is most significant in the transparency region of the matrix material and falls off as the absorption coefficient rises. In an absorbing matrix medium this leads both to an increase in the fraction of energy absorbed by the matrix material and to a substantial transformation in its spectral distribution. This is illustrated for the case of copper phthalocyanine with silver nanoparticles. By choosing the size of the introduced plasmon nanoparticles it is possible to enhance the absorption in the visible for the materials used in solar cells and thereby increase their energy efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]