Plasmonics for photovoltaics

Plasmonics is emerging as a whole new area of science due to its potential of interacting with light in the nanoscale. The advent of this new technology, that makes use of excitation of surface plasmons in metal nanoparticles, into photovoltaics has been recent; however, preliminary results obtained from various cell structures have been promising. Ongoing surge of interest in this work has led to better understanding of the mechanisms involved and plasmonic applications in photovoltaics is becoming a more mature technology. This chapter gives a background of the technology, discusses some fabrication processes relevant to solar cell applications, reviews some of the results obtained over the last decade and gives an overview of some of the design considerations and limitations of a surface plasmon enhanced solar cell.