Abstract
Plasmonic nanostructures have been recently investigated as a possible way to improve
absorption of light in solar cells. The strong interaction of small metal nanostructures with light
allows control over the propagation of light at the nanoscale and thus the design of ultrathin
solar cells in which light is trapped in the active layer and efficiently absorbed. In this paper we
review some of our recent work in the field of plasmonics for improved solar cells. We have
investigated two possible ways of integrating metal nanoparticles in a solar cell. First, a layer of
Ag nanoparticles that improves the standard antireflection coating used for crystalline and
amorphous silicon solar cells has been designed and fabricated. Second, regular and random
arrays of metal nanostructures have been designed to couple light in waveguide modes of thin
semiconductor layers. Using a large-scale, relative inexpensive nano-imprint technique, we
have designed a back-contact light trapping surface for a-Si:H solar cells which show enhanced
efficiency over standard randomly textured cells.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 024002/1-024002/11 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | Journal of Optics |
Volume | 14 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2011 |