Plasmonic excitation for high-efficiency photovoltaics

Photovoltaic absorbers ought to be optically thick to allow almost total light absorption and photocarrier current collection. They are typically semiconductors with a thickness more than the optical absorption length. When the absorber layer thickness is reduced significantly, then the quality of the absorber material could considerably increase by allowing resourceful photocarrier collection across tiny distances in structures such as quantum wells or quantum dots. For absorber layers with fine surface passivation, the capability to reduce the solar cell base thickness by means of plasmonic design improves carrier collection. The objective of this paper is to show how plasmonics could be exploited to our benefit in high efficiency photovoltaics.