Role of Plasmonics in Solar Cell Architecture: A Short Review

Abstract

The exponential decay of fossil fuel resources over the decades has necessitated the use of alternative clean, green and renewable energy sources. Solar energy is the most widely used renewable energy source due to its easy availability and vast irradiation area. The solar cells have been extensively used as a suitable device for conversion of solar energy to electrical energy. The integration of plasmonic nanostructures in solar cell devices have successfully addressed the various limitations of conventional solar cells and achieved improved light confinement in the active layer and increased optical path length, leading to increase in the overall energy conversion. This article provides a brief discussion on the use of plasmonics based architectures in solar cell devices in order to achieve improved efficiency of these devices.