biostudies-literatureUnknown7(1)Nie KYIntermediate band solar cells (IBSCs) are conceptual and promising for next generation high efficiency photovoltaic devices, whereas, IB impact on the cell performance is still marginal due to the weak absorption of IB states. Here a rational design of a hybrid structure composed of ZnTe:O/ZnO core-shell nanowires (NWs) with Al bowtie nanoantennas is demonstrated to exhibit strong ability in tuning and enhancing broadband light response. The optimized nanowire dimensions enable absorption enhancement by engineering leaky-mode dielectric resonances. It maximizes the overlap of the absorption spectrum and the optical transitions in ZnTe:O intermediate-band (IB) photovoltaic materials, as verified by the enhanced photoresponse especially for IB states in an individual nanowire device. FurtherScientific reports7503https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC5548811biostudies-literatureExtreme absorption enhancement in ZnTe:O/ZnO intermediate band core-shell nanowires by interplay of dielectric resonance and plasmonic bowtie nanoantennas.PMC5548811Du QZheng YLi JGu SWu PRen FFZhang RJagadish CTang KNie KYFu LChen XTu XKang LXu YTan HHYe JfalseExtreme absorption enhancement in ZnTe:O/ZnO intermediate band core-shell nanowires by interplay of dielectric resonance and plasmonic bowtie nanoantennas.Intermediate band solar cells (IBSCs) are conceptual and promising for next generation high efficiency photovoltaic devices, whereas, IB impact on the cell performance is still marginal due to the weak absorption of IB states. Here a rational design of a hybrid structure composed of ZnTe:O/ZnO core-shell nanowires (NWs) with Al bowtie nanoantennas is demonstrated to exhibit strong ability in tuning and enhancing broadband light response. The optimized nanowire dimensions enable absorption enhancement by engineering leaky-mode dielectric resonances. It maximizes the overlap of the absorption spectrum and the optical transitions in ZnTe:O intermediate-band (IB) photovoltaic materials, as verified by the enhanced photoresponse especially for IB states in an individual nanowire device. Further2017-01-01T00:00:00Z2017 Aug2025-05-29T19:17:17.165Z2025-05-29T19:17:17.165ZS-EPMC55488112879036310.1038/s41598-017-07970-7