Recent Progress in Design of Plasmonic Thin-Film Solar Cells with Enhanced Efficiency

Plasmonics is concerned with the interaction between electromagnetic radiation and conduction electrons at metallic/dielectric interfaces and has been a hot research area since 2000. Plasmonics is now attracting more research activities because a plasmonic nanostructure is one of the most promising candidates to serve as the light scattering and trapping agent to reduce the physical thickness of current solar cells while maintaining the optical thickness. In this patents review, we describe the basic mechanisms of plasmonic thin-film solar cells, summarize the common design and fabrication techniques, and discuss the future prospects.