Journal of Luminescence 238 (2021) 118271

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Journal of Luminescence
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jlumin

Performance improvement of Si solar cell via down - Conversion and

plasmonic processes using Eu3+ doped TeO2-GeO2-PbO glasses with silver
nanoparticles as cover layer
G.R.S. Mattos a, C.D.S. Bordon a, L.A. Gómez-Malagón b, *, R.M. Gunji a, c, L.R.P. Kassab c
a
Polytechnic School of University of São Paulo, 05508-010, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
b
University of Pernambuco, Polytechnic School of Pernambuco, 50720-001, Recife, PE, Brazil
c
Faculty of Technology of São Paulo, CEETEPS/UNESP, 01124-060, São Paulo, Brazil

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: We report Si solar cell efficiency enhancement covering it with a layer of Eu3+ doped TeO2–GeO2 - PbO glasses
Solar cell with silver nanoparticles. The glass samples were prepared using the well-known melt quenching technique and
Luminescence thermally treated to nucleate metallic particles by thermal reduction. Different concentrations of Eu2O3 and
Plasmonic
AgNO3 were investigated and the influence of the down -conversion process and the plasmonic effects of silver
Tellurites
Glasses
nanoparticles on Si solar cell performance was demonstrated. The best performance of the photovoltaic device
was reached when it was covered with samples that exhibit the highest luminescence combined with consid­
erable transmittance in the visible range. We highlight the best results in which the efficiency of Si solar cell was
increased in 11.42% and 11.81%, covering it with samples doped with 1.0% and 5.0% of Eu2O3 containing low
concentration of silver nanoparticles, respectively. On the other hand, the effect of large concentration of silver
nanoparticles was explored. In this case, quenching of the luminescence promoted the decreasing of Si solar cell
performance.

1. Introduction
Tellurite glasses present interesting characteristics for photonics and
optoeletrectronics: good chemical and mechanical stabilities, wide
transparence window (440–5000 nm), low melting temperatures with
respect to silicates, low phonon energies (normally below 900 cm− 1)
providing low nonradiative rates and high values of linear and nonlinear
refractive indexes, important for ultra-fast devices applications [1,2].
Moreover they demonstrated different applications as follows [3]. Laser
action at 1064 nm for different concentration of Nd3+ ions was reported
for glasses based on TeO2 [4,5]. Memory device applications of thin
films based on TeO2 due to the presence of gold nanoparticles (NPs) [6]
and the influence of oxygen flow and annealing influence on structural
properties of these materials were also demonstrated [7]. The efficient
infrared-to-visible light conversion in different compositions based on
TeO2, due to metallic NPs also represent the important role of tellurite
glasses regarding applications with displays in the blue-red region
[8–10].
For photovoltaic applications, the efficiency enhancement of solar
cells can be obtained, for example, covering the solar cell with a lumi­
nescent material able to convert UV photons from the solar spectrum to
lower energy photons through the down-conversion process in order to
reduce the losses due to thermalization [11,12]. Examples of materials
suggested for this purpose are available in the literature including
different hosts and luminescent species [13–16]. In particular, lantha­
nides ions have attracted the attention for this application due to their
luminescence in the VIS region which can be obtained via up or down
conversion process [17]. Also, their performance can be improved by
enhancing the local field factor around the luminescent ion via plas­
monic effects using metallic NPs, such as silver and gold [18–21].
Another important factor to improve the luminescence of the rare-earth
ion is the right choice of the host which must be highly transparent to
avoid self-absorption, and with low energy phonon to avoid
non-radiative decay channels from the active luminescent ions; [22].
Recent efforts have been done to study the spectroscopic properties of
glassy materials doped, for example, with Eu [23], Pr [24], and pairs of
Tb/Yb [25], Pr/Yb [26], Nd/Yb [27], Ce/Yb [28], Er/Yb [29] to explore
down and up conversion processes in order to enhance the silicon solar

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: lagomezma@poli.br (L.A. Gómez-Malagón).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jlumin.2021.118271
Received 5 February 2021; Received in revised form 1 June 2021; Accepted 4 June 2021
Available online 12 June 2021
0022-2313/© 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
G.R.S. Mattos et al. Journal of Luminescence 238 (2021) 118271

cell performance. However, few results report the efficiency enhance­

ment of photovoltaic devices covered by these special glasses, which is a
potential area of study for these photonic materials. At this point it is
important to mention recent results in which glasses based on TeO2
doped with rare earth ions, with and without metallic NPs showed
promising results [30–32]. Moreover, regarding the composition of the
present investigation (TeO2–GeO2 -PbO) some previous reports also
motivate us. Large enhancement of the luminescence from 430 to 750
nm, associated to aggregates of Pb2+ ions in TeO2-GeO2-PbO glasses
were reported [33] as well as the effects of gold nanoparticles in the
infrared-to-visible frequency upconversion of Er3+–Yb 3+ co-doped
TeO2–GeO2-PbO glasses [10]. Also Eu3+ luminescence in TeO2-­
GeO2-PbO glasses was investigated and in this case the nucleation of
gold NPs contributed for the luminescence enhancement of the Eu 3+
transitions corresponding to wavelengths in the red–orange spectrum
[21]. Piezooptical effects in Eu3+ doped TeO2-GeO2-PbO glasses with
gold NPs [34] and the influence of Au nanoparticles concentration on
the thermal diffusivity of Eu3+ doped TeO2-GeO2-PbO glass, investi­
gated using thermal lens technique [35] were also investigated. More
recently the nuclear radiation shielding applications were reported
using undoped TeO2-GeO2-PbO glasses [36] and the nonlinear optical
properties results demonstrated that TeO2-GeO2-PbO glasses are prom­
ising materials for all-optical switching within the telecom wavelength
range [37].
These results motivate the present investigation with TeO2-GeO2-
PbO glasses doped with Eu3+, with and without silver NPs, to be used as
cover layer to increase Si solar cell efficiency. Several conditions were
explored to study the influence of the down-conversion process and the
plasmonic effects related to different Eu2O3 concentration and silver NPs
on Si solar cell efficiency; moreover a correlation is performed between
luminescence and transmittance properties and Si solar cell efficiency.

2. Experiments

The samples were produced by the traditional process known as

melt-quenching method, with the bare glass composition (in wt%):
33.34TeO2 - 33.33GeO2 - 33.33PbO (TGP) [10,38]. Different samples
were fabricated adding to the glass composition 1.0/2.0/5.0 wt% of
Eu2O3. Moreover, samples with different concentration of AgNO3 were
also prepared as follows: 1.0/5.0 wt% of Eu2O3 with 0.5 wt% of AgNO3
and 2.0 wt% of Eu2O3 with 4.0 wt% of AgNO3. All the basic chemical
ingredients used were of high purity (99.999%). The reagents were
mixed in a high purity platinum crucible (99.999%) which was placed
inside a preheated furnace at 1050 ◦ C, at ambient pressure, and main­
tained for 1 h at this temperature. After this period, the melt was
quenched into a preheated brass mold and then placed in a furnace for
annealing at 380 ◦ C for 2 h to release internal stresses. Then, the melting
furnace was switched off and expected to reach room temperature. The
raw samples were cut and polished until they reached 10 mm length, 4
mm width and 2.5 mm in thickness. After that, additional heat treatment
was performed at 380 ◦ C for 12 h to continue the nucleation process the
NPs by thermal reduction. Samples with no additional heat treatment
will be labeled as thermally untreated (0h).
A 200 kV high transmission electron microscope (TEM) was used to
investigate the nucleation of the silver NPs; scanning transmission
electron microscopy (STEM) was performed to analyze the silver NPs
distribution throughout the samples. Optical absorption spectra were
obtained using a UV-VIS-IR spectrophotometer in the range of 300–800
nm. Photoluminescence signals were obtained by Ocean Optics spec­ Fig. 1. Absorption spectra of TGP glasses doped with (a) 1.0% Eu2O3, (b) 2.0%
trometer after samples excitation with a CW diode laser (405 nm). The Eu2O3 and (c) 5.0% Eu2O3 without and with AgNO3; undoped TGP sample
light source for the electrical characterization was a solar simulator spectrum is shown as reference.
(XPS-300 - SOLAR Light). Efficiency, fill factor (FF), short circuit current
(Isc), and open circuit voltage (Voc), were acquired from the current-
voltage (I–V) curves obtained under 1000 W/m2 (AM1.5) irradiance of
a polycrystalline silicon solar cell (dimensions of 10 mm × 4 mm). All
measurements were made at room temperature. Between the solar cell

2
G.R.S. Mattos et al.
Fig. 2. Transmittance spectra of TGP glasses doped with (a) 1.0% Eu2O3, (b)
2.0% Eu2O3 and (c) 5.0% Eu2O3 without and with AgNO3; undoped TGP sample
spectrum is shown as reference.
and the glasses, an immersion oil for optical microscopy (n = 1.5
refractive index) was applied to improve the optical coupling, as it has a
refractive index closer to that of the glasses (~2.0). The purpose of this
procedure was to reduce reflection losses in the interface between the
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Journal of Luminescence 238 (2021) 118271
Fig. 3. (a) Absorption and (b) transmittance spectra of TGP glasses doped with
1.0% 2.0% and 5.0% Eu2O3; undoped TGP sample spectrum is shown
as reference.
solar cell and the glasses because of the high contrast of the refractive
index between them. This adopted procedure has already been pre­
sented in the literature [39,40].
3. Results and discussions
Fig. 1(a–c) and Fig. 2(a–c) show the absorption and transmittance
spectra of TGP glasses doped with 1.0%, 2.0% and 5.0% of Eu2O3,
respectively. Samples doped with 1.0% and 5.0% were prepared with
0.5% of AgNO3 and the sample doped with 2.0% of Eu2O3 with 4.0% of
AgNO3. For all samples, the absorption bands corresponding to the Eu3+
ion transitions from the 7F0 fundamental state to the upper levels 5G2
(~380 nm), 5L6 (~395 nm), 5D3 (~414 nm), 5D2 (~465 nm), 5D1 (~533
nm), 5D0 (~583 nm) and from 7F1 to the 5D0 (~590 nm) are presented.
Therefore, the incorporation of the precursor Eu2O3 in its trivalent form
was proven due to the identification of the absorption bands associated
with the Eu3+ transitions. Just for comparison, absorption and trans­
mittance spectra for samples doped only with Eu3+ ions are shown in
Fig. 3 (a) and Fig. 3(b) respectively. From Fig. 3 is observed that the UV
cut-off wavelength is red-shifted when Eu3+ ion concentration is
increased. The observed band gap reduction could be attributed to new
unoccupied electron states in the gap below the conduction band edge
due to the location of Eu3+ ions on the TGP glass [41]. On the other
hand, from Fig. 3(b) we observe that transmittance decreases when Eu3+
G.R.S. Mattos et al.
Fig. 4. (a) TEM image of the sample doped with 5.0% Eu2O3 and 0.5% AgNO3 thermally treated for 12 h (b) STEM images show the spatial distribution of (a) Te, (b)
Ge, (c) Pb, (d) O, (e) Eu and (f) Ag in the sample.
ion concentration is increased, which is attributed to the linear refrac­
tion index increase leading to an increase of the reflectance [42]. For
samples doped with 0.5% of AgNO3, the silver absorption band (nor­
mally centered at ~ 470 nm), is not observed due to its small concen­
tration, even in the glass samples treated for 12 h. However, changes in
the UV absorbance were observed and attributed to silver NPs. It is
important to note that the heat treatment duration time modifies the NPs
size and concentration, changing optical response and inducing changes
in the local glass network structure. Then, the competition between
these effects (NPs size and concentration and glass network structure)
may lead to the increase or decrease of the UV absorption band for
different heat treatment duration time, as reported in the literature
[43–46]. For the sample doped with 2.0% of Eu2O3 and 4.0% of AgNO3
heat treated for 12 h it is also possible to observe the presence of a wide
absorption band associated with the localized surface plasmon band of
silver NPs.
Fig. 4(a) shows TEM images of the sample doped with 5% Eu2O3 and
0.5% AgNO3 and thermally treated for 12 h where we observe silver NPs
with size around 5 nm and interplanar distance of 0.236 nm corre­
sponding to the crystalline plane (1,1,1) of face centered cubic silver
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Journal of Luminescence 238 (2021) 118271
[47–49]. Fig. 4(b–g) show STEM images revealing uniform distribution
of the chemical compounds on the glassy sample such as Te, Ge, Pb, O,
Eu and Ag.
Emission spectra in the range of 560 nm–710 nm, under 405 nm laser
excitation, are shown in Fig. 5 for samples doped only with 1.0%, 2.0%
and 5.0% of Eu2O3 respectively. Fig. 6(a–d) present the emission spectra
for samples doped with 1.0%, 2.0% and 5.0% of Eu2O3 with and without
AgNO3. The luminescence results for all samples show peaks associated
to the following europium transitions due to down conversion process:
5
D0→7F0 (~ 580 nm), 5D0→7F1 (~ 593 nm), 5D0→7F2 (~ 613 nm),
5
D0→7F3 (~ 655 nm), 5D0→7F4 (~ 701 nm).
From Fig. 5 it can be noted emission growth with concentration in­
crease of Eu2O3 indicating an enhancement of the down conversion
process. The integrated emission at 613 nm as function of Eu2O3 con­
centration is shown in the inset of Fig. 5. Modification on the europium
environment with its concentration increase is expected from the
transmittance measurements as shown in Fig. 3(b). Also, changes on the
glass density regarding Eu2O3 concentration is reported for different
hosts [41,50]. On the other hand, information about the environment
where the luminescent ion is hosted can be accessed monitoring the ratio
G.R.S. Mattos et al. Journal of Luminescence 238 (2021) 118271

Fig. 5. Emission spectra of TGP glasses doped with 1.0%, 2.0% and 5.0% Eu2O3
under excitation at 405 nm. The inset shows the integrated intensity corre­
sponding to the 5D0 -> 7F2 transition with peak at 613 nm.

R of the integrated luminescence areas, given by R = 5D0 → 7F2/5D0 →

7
F1, which are electric and magnetic dipole transitions, respectively.
These transitions are chosen because they are sensitive and insensitive to
the surrounding defects and disorder around the Eu3+ ion, respectively,
and consequently are often used as a measure for the asymmetry of the
Eu3+ site [51]. R values of 3.33, 3.50 and 3.78 were obtained for samples
doped with 1.0%, 2.0% and 5.0% of Eu2O3, respectively. Similar results
were also reported and analyzed in the literature for europium ions at
different hosts, indicating that increasing the amount of europium ions,
induces a significant lattice distortion changing its original symmetry.
Then, the obtained results indicate that Eu2O3 concentration growth,
favors the asymmetry enhancement around the Eu3+ ions suggesting
that they prefer to be placed in lattice site without inversion symmetry
[52–57]. Also, similar R values are reported in the literature for different
Eu3+ doped tellurite glasses [58,59].
The influence of low silver concentration (0.5% of AgNO3) on the
luminescence of samples doped with 1.0% and 5.0% of Eu2O3 is shown
in Fig. 6(a) and (c). For samples thermally untreated, the luminescence
was improved in 100% for the sample doped with 1.0% of Eu2O3 (R =
3.33) whereas the one with 5% of Eu2O3 (R = 3.65), was practically
insensitive to the presence of AgNO3. For samples thermally treated for
12 h, the luminescence of samples doped with 1.0% (R = 3.22) and 5%
(R = 3.70) of Eu2O3 was quenched and increased, respectively, in
comparison with the corresponding sample thermally untreated. Fig. 6
(d) compares the results for the luminescence increase due to silver NPs
for samples with 1.0% and 5.0% of Eu2O3; comparing both results we
notice five times luminescence enhancement due to Eu2O3 concentra­
tion growth plus silver NPs contribution. In contrast, in Fig. 6(b) we
observe luminescence quenching for the samples with high silver con­
centration (4.0% of AgNO3) and doped with 2.0% of Eu2O3, thermally
untreated (R = 3.29) and treated (R = 3.31). Then R values tends to
decrease with the addition of AgNO3 indicating asymmetry reduction
tendency where Eu3+ ion is located and also demonstrate that the
structure is slightly modified by the heat treatment.
We highlight that energy transfer from rare-earth ions to NPs,
responsible for luminescence decrease, predominates when the distance
between rare-earth ions and the NPs is very small (<5 nm) and normally
takes place for larger metallic NPs concentration that provides the Fig. 6. Emission spectra of TGP glasses doped with (a) 1.0% Eu2O3, (b) 2.0%
approach between them and the rare earth ions. For distances between 5 Eu2O3 and (c) 5.0% Eu2O3 without and with and AgNO3 under excitation at
and 20 nm, the increase can be favored, both by increasing the local field 405 nm (d) 1.0 and 5.0% Eu2O3 with AgNO3.
and by transferring energy [43,44,60–62]. The plasmon resonance ab­
sorption of silver/gold NPs overlaps some 5Di states (i = 0,1,2,3) of Eu3+

5
G.R.S. Mattos et al. Journal of Luminescence 238 (2021) 118271

Fig. 7. (a) I–V and (b) P–V curves of Si solar cells covered with TGP glasses Fig. 8. (a) I–V and (b) P–V curves of Si solar cells covered with TGP glasses
doped with 1.0% Eu2O3 without and with 0.5% of AgNO3. doped with 2.0% Eu2O3 without and with 4% of AgNO3.

[19]. As the incident light (405 nm) can be absorbed by the silver NPs we η − ηbare
Δη = (3)
attribute the luminescence increase not only to the enhanced local field ηbare
in the vicinities of silver NPs but also to energy transfer from the NPs to
In eq. (2) , A is the solar cell area, I is the incident irradiance (1000
the Eu3+ ions. So the luminescence increase is partially due to the
W/m2 - AM1.5) and (ηbare) is the efficiency of the bare solar cell. These
increased absorption of Eu3+ ions attributed to silver NPs.
electrical results are reported in Table 1 for all samples.
The electrical characterizations of the solar cell covered with glasses
The role of the down conversion process on the Si solar cell efficiency
doped with different contents of Eu2O3 and AgNO3 are shown in Figs. 7,
can be explained as follows: covering the silicon solar cell with a host
8 and 9 for the samples doped with 1.0%, 2.0% and 5.0% of Eu2O3 and
containing Eu3+ ions, may reduce thermal losses because the number of
AgNO3 respectively. Results for bare solar cells are also shown as
photons that are converted from the UV to the visible are increased [11].
reference. From the current-voltage (I–V) and power-voltage (P–V)
Although there is increase of the down conversion process due to the
curves, the following parameters were obtained: short circuit current
concentration growth of Eu2O3 (shown in Fig. 5) the contribution of the
(Isc), open circuit voltage (Voc), and current (Imp) and voltage (Vmp) at
transmittance has to be considered. Then the transmittance of the
the maximum power (Pmax = Imp x Vmp). From these parameters, the fill
samples also plays important role contributing for Si solar cell efficiency
factor (FF), the covered cell efficiency (η), the bare cell efficiency (ηbare),
increase or decrease. Regarding the samples with different Eu2O3 con­
and the relative enhancement efficiency (Δη) were calculated as follows
centration and without silver NPs, we note that the efficiencies results
[30–32]:
are in accordance with the concentration and luminescence growths as
Vmp Imp shown in Fig. 5 and also takes into account the contribution of the
FF = (1)
Voc Isc transmittance that is lower for the sample with the highest luminescence
as shown in Fig. 3(b), explaining the similar values obtained (9.76% for
η=
Vmp Imp
(2) 2.0% Eu2O3 and 9.91% for 5.0% Eu2O3). However, for samples with 1%
AI and 5% of Eu2O3 the large increase of the luminescence (inset of Fig. 5)

6
G.R.S. Mattos et al. Journal of Luminescence 238 (2021) 118271

for example, the presence of silver NPs enhances in 100% the lumines­
cence of the sample doped with 1% of Eu2O3 (Fig. 6(a)) whereas for the
sample with 5% of Eu2O3 this increase is of ~20% (Fig. 6(c)). Then for
samples doped with low concentration of silver NPs, the best results
observed for Si solar cell efficiency increase are of 11.42% and 11.81%,
for samples with 1.0% Eu2O3 and 5.0% of Eu2O3, respectively. As the
solar cell efficiency depends on the amount of photons arriving to the
photovoltaic device, the transmittance of the glass cover also play
important role and explains the similar efficiency enhancement ob­
tained for solar cells covered by both samples: the one with 1.0% of
Eu2O3 with silver NPs exhibits higher transmittance in comparison with
the one with 5.0% of Eu2O3 with silver NPs (Fig. 2(a) and (c)), that
presents higher luminescence with respect to the sample with 1.0% of
Eu2O3 with silver NPs (Fig. 6 (d)). Just for comparison, to obtain similar
efficiency increase with a different composition based on TeO2
(TeO2–ZnO), also prepared with 1.0% of Eu2O3, it was necessary to use
AgNO3 concentration four times larger [31]. As the efficiencies increase
promoted by samples with 2.0% and 5.0% Eu2O3 are similar (9.76% and
9.91%), in order to study the influence of larger AgNO3 concentration on
Si solar cell performance, it was chosen the one with 2.0% Eu2O3 to be
prepared with 4.0% AgNO3 due to its higher transmittance with respect
to sample with 5% Eu2O3 (Fig. 3(b)). In this case, for the sample heat
treated for 12h, large efficiency decrease of the solar cell takes place
(− 8.89%), attributed to its low transparency caused by the large ab­
sorption band associated with Ag plasmons and also to luminescence
decrease.
Then, it is important to note that the obtained results take into ac­
count the contribution of Eu3+ ions and silver NPs concentration that
provide luminescence increase due to plasmonic effects, and the trans­
mittance decrease attributed to host modification.

4. Conclusions

There is always a mismatch between the solar spectrum and the Si

Fig. 9. (a) I–V and (b) P–V curves of Si solar cells covered with TGP glasses
doped with 5.0% Eu2O3 without and with 0.5% of AgNO3.
compensates the transmittance decrease observed for sample with 5% of
Eu2O3 (Fig. 3(b)); similar behavior is noticed for samples with 1% and
2% of Eu2O3%.
The use of metallic NPs to increase the luminescence of rare earth
ions, that influences positively the down-conversion process, represents
an important alternative to enhance Si solar cell efficiency, as demon­
strated by the present results. The plasmonic effects contribute for the
luminescence growth, favoring higher Si solar cell efficiency increase;
solar cell. Luminescent materials used as cover layer represent an
alternative to overcome this problem. Moreover, the presence of
metallic NPs also plays an important role as can they favor the rare earth
ions luminescence increase. On the other hand, large concentration of
metallic NPs may also cause luminescence quenching leading to Si solar
cell efficiency decrease. Si solar cell efficiency enhancement of 11.41
and 11.81% was reached when used as cover layer TeO2–GeO2 -PbO
samples doped with 1.0% and 5.0% of Eu2O3 with Ag-NPs. The present
proof of concepts results demonstrates plasmon assisted efficiency
enhancement of Eu3+ doped TeO2–GeO2 -PbO glasses covered solar cell
as route to optimize photovoltaic devices performance, and can be
extended to different materials, organic and inorganic.
Authorship contributions
Guilherme R. S. Mattos: Methodology, Investigation, Camila D. da S.

Table 1
Electrical parameters for Si solar cell covered with TGP glasses doped with Eu3+ with and without AgNO3.
Matrix doping (wt%) Heat treatment (hours) Isc (mA) Voc (V) Imp (mA) Vmp (V) Pmax (mW) FF η (%) Δη (%)

Eu2O3 AgNO3

1.0 8.79 0.555 7.32 0.427 3.13 64.10 7.82 6.07

1.0 0.5 0 9.06 0.552 7.78 0.422 3.28 65.72 8.21 11.42
1.0 0.5 12 8.81 0.551 7.45 0.426 3.17 65.45 7.94 7.71
2.0 8.99 0.552 7.63 0.424 3.23 65.25 8.09 9.76
2.0 4.0 0 8.81 0.551 7.43 0.427 3.17 65.41 7.93 7.65
2.0 4.0 12 7.63 0.543 6.47 0.415 2.69 64.85 6.71 − 8.89
5.0 8.97 0.551 7.64 0.424 3.24 65.59 8.10 9.91
5.0 0.5 0 8.60 0.549 7.34 0.422 3.10 65.65 7.75 5.12
5.0 0.5 12 9.07 0.552 7.79 0.423 3.30 65.88 8.24 11.81

Bare solar cell 8.27 0.548 7.00 0.421 2.95 65.09 7.37

7
G.R.S. Mattos et al.
Bordon: Methodology, Investigation, L. A. Gómez-Malagón: Methodol­
ogy, Conceptualization, Writing – Original Draft, Supervision, Project
administration, Writing – Review & Editing. Renato M. Gunji: Method­
ology, Investigation, Luciana R. P. Kassab: Methodology, Conceptuali­
zation, Resources, Writing – Original Draft, Supervision, Project
administration, Writing – Review & Editing, Funding acquisition.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments
This work was performed in the framework of the National Institute
of Photonics (INCT de Fotônica) project supported by the Conselho
Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnológico. We acknowl­
edge the Nanotechnology National Laboratory (LNNano), CNPEM-
Campinas/Brazil, for the HR-TEM measurements. The authors
acknowledge Dra Wang S. Hui, Dr. Emerson R. Santos from Polytechnic
School of University of São Paulo for the use of the solar simulator.
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