Abstract

The scattering from metal nanoparticles near their localized plasmon resonance is a promising way of increasing the light absorption in thin-film solar cells. Enhancements in photocurrent have been observed for a wide range of semiconductors and solar cell configurations. We review experimental and theoretical progress that has been made in recent years, describe the basic mechanisms at work, and provide an outlook on future prospects in this area.

© 2008 Optical Society of America

» View Full Text: Acrobat PDF (629 KB)

History
Original Manuscript: September 9, 2008
Manuscript Accepted: October 14, 2008
Revised Manuscript: October 12, 2008
Published: December 17, 2008

References

1. J. Müller, B. Rech, J. Springer, and M. Vanecek, "TCO and light trapping in silicon thin film solar cells," Solar Energy 77, 917-930 (2004). [CrossRef]
2. J. Meier, S. Dubail, S. Golay, U. Kroll, S. Faÿ, E. Vallat-Sauvain, L. Feitknecht, J. Dubail, and A. Shah, "Microcrystalline silicon and the impact on micromorph tandem solar cells," Sol. Energy Mater. Sol. Cells 74, 457-467 (2002). [CrossRef]
3. S. Nie and R. Emory, "Probing single molecules and single nanoparticles by surface-enhanced Raman scattering " Science 275, 1102 (1997). [CrossRef]
4. M. Moskovits, "Surface-enhanced spectroscopy," Rev. Mod. Phys. 57, 783 (1985). [CrossRef]
5. S. A. Maier, M. L. Brongersma, P. G. Kik, S. Meltzer, A. A. G. Requicha, and H. A. Atwater, "Plasmonics - A route to nanoscale optical devices," Adv. Mat. 13, 1501 (2001). [CrossRef]
6. X. D. Hoa, A. G. Kirk, and M. Tabrizian, "Towards integrated and sensitive surface plasmon resonance biosensors: A review of recent progress," Biosens. Bioelectron. 23, 151-160 (2007). [CrossRef]
7. H. R. Stuart and D. G. Hall, "Island size effects in nanoparticle-enhanced photodetectors " Appl. Phys. Lett. 73, 3815 (1998). [CrossRef]
8. D. M. Schaadt, B. Feng, and E. T. Yu, "Enhanced semiconductor optical absorption via surface plasmon excitation in metal nanoparticles," Appl. Phys. Lett. 86, 063106 (2005). [CrossRef]
9. D. Derkacs, S. H. Lim, P. Matheu, W. Mar, and E. T. Yu, "Improved performance of amorphous silicon solar cells via scattering from surface plasmon polaritons in nearby metallic nanoparticles," Appl. Phys. Lett. 89, 093103 (2006). [CrossRef]
10. S. Pillai, K. R. Catchpole, T. Trupke, and M. A. Green, "Surface plasmon enhanced silicon solar cells," J. Appl. Phys. 101, 093105 (2007). [CrossRef]
11. S. Pillai, K. R. Catchpole, T. Trupke, G. Zhang, J. Zhao, and M. A. Green, "Enhanced emission from thin Si based LEDs using surface plasmons," Appl. Phys. Lett. 88, 161102 (2006). [CrossRef]
12. M. Westphalen, U. Kreibig, J. Rostalski, H. Lüth, and D. Meissner, "Metal cluster enhanced organic solar cells," Sol. Energy Mater. Sol. Cells 61, 97-105 (2000). [CrossRef]
13. B. P. Rand, P. Peumans, and S. R. Forrest, "Long-range absorption enhancement in organic tandem thin-film solar cells containing silver nanoclusters," J. Appl. Phys. 96, 7519 (2004). [CrossRef]
14. A. J. Morfa, K. L. Rowlen, T. H. Reilly III, M. J. Romero, and J. v. d. Lagemaatb, "Plasmon-enhanced solar energy conversion in organic bulk heterojunction photovoltaics," Appl. Phys. Lett. 92, 013504 (2008). [CrossRef]
15. R. B. Konda, R. Mundle, H. Mustafa, O. Bamiduro, A. K. Pradhan, U. N. Roy, Y. Cui, and A. Burger, "Surface plasmon excitation via Au nanoparticles in n-CdSe/p-Si heterojunction diodes," Appl. Phys. Lett. 91, 191111 (2007). [CrossRef]
16. C. Hägglund, M. Zäch, and B. Kasemo, "Enhanced charge carrier generation in dye sensitized solar cells by nanoparticle plasmons," Appl. Phys. Lett. 92, 013113 (2008). [CrossRef]
17. K. R. Catchpole and A. Polman, "Design principles for particle plasmon enhanced solar cells," Appl. Phys. Lett. 93, 191113 (2008). [CrossRef]
18. C. F. Bohren and D. R. Huffman, Absorption and scattering of light by small particles (Wiley-Interscience, New York, 1983).
19. U. Kreibig and M. Vollmer, Optical properties of metal clusters, Springer Series in Materials Science (Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1995).
20. H. Mertens, A. F. Koenderink, and A. Polman, "Plasmon-enhanced luminescence near noble-metal nanospheres: Comparison of exact theory and an improved Gersten and Nitzan model," Phys. Rev. B 76, 115123 (2007). [CrossRef]
21. M. Meier and A. Wokaun, "Enhanced fields on large metal particles: dynamic depolarization," Opt. Lett. 8, 581 (1983). [CrossRef]
22. A. Wokaun, J. P. Gordon, and P. F. Liao, "Radiation damping in surface-enhanced Raman scattering," Phys. Rev. Lett. 48, 957 (1982). [CrossRef]
23. K. L. Kelly, E. Coronado, L. L. Zhao, and G. C. Schatz, "The optical properties of metal nanoparticles: The influence of size, shape, and dielectric environment," Journal of Physical Chemistry B 107, 668-677 (2003). [CrossRef]
24. C. Langhammer, B. Kasemo, and I. Zorić, "Absorption and scattering of light by Pt, Pd, Ag, and Au nanodisks: Absolute cross sections and branching ratios," J. Chem. Phys. 126, 194702 (2007). [CrossRef]
25. S. P. Sundararajan, N. K. Grady, N. Mirin, and N. J. Halas, "Nanoparticle-Induced Enhancement and Suppression of Photocurrent in a Silicon Photodiode," Nano Lett. 8, 624-630 (2008). [CrossRef]
26. G. Xu, M. Tazawa, P. Jin, S. Nakao, and K. Yoshimura, "Wavelength tuning of surface plasmon resonance using dielectric layers on silver island films," Appl. Phys. Lett. 82, 3811-3813 (2003). [CrossRef]
27. H. Mertens, J. Verhoeven, A. Polman, and F. D. Tichelaar, "Infrared surface plasmons in two-dimensional silver nanoparticle arrays in silicon," Appl. Phys. Lett. 85, 1317-1319 (2004). [CrossRef]
28. MiePlot, www.philiplaven.com/mieplot.htm.
29. F. Beck, K. R. Catchpole, and A. Polman, "Red-shifting the surface plasmon resonance of silver nanoparticles for light trapping in solar cells," to be published.
30. C. Langhammer, M. Schwind, B. Kasemo, and I. Zoric, "Localized Surface Plasmon Resonances in Aluminum Nanodisks," Nano Lett. 8, 1461-1471 (2008). [CrossRef]
31. H. Benisty, R. Stanley, and M. Mayer, "Method of source terms for dipole emission modification in modes of arbitrary planar structures " J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 15, 1192 (1998). [CrossRef]
32. B. J. Soller, H. R. Stuart, and D. G. Hall, "Energy transfer at optical frequencies to silicon-on-insulator structures," Opt. Lett. 26, 1421 (2001). [CrossRef]
33. J. Mertz, "Radiative absorption, fluorescence, and scattering of a classical dipole near a lossless interface: a unified description," J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 17, 1906 (2000). [CrossRef]
34. B. J. Soller and D. G. Hall, "Scattering enhancement from an array of interacting dipoles near a planar waveguide," J. Opt. Soc. Am.B-Opt. Phys. 19, 2437-2448 (2002).
35. B. Soller, The Interaction Between Metal Nanoparticle Resonances and Optical Frequency Surface waves (University of Rochester, 2002).
36. H. R. Stuart and D. G. Hall, "Thermodynamic limit to light trapping in thin planar structures," J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 14, 3001 (1997). [CrossRef]
37. K. R. Catchpole and S. Pillai, "Absorption enhancement due to scattering by dipoles into silicon waveguides," J. Appl. Phys. 100, 044504 (2006). [CrossRef]
38. K. H. Drexhage, "Influence of a dielectric interface on fluorescence decay time," J. Lumin. 1,693 (1970).
39. E. Snoeks, A. Lagendijk, and A. Polman, "Measuring and modifying the spontaneous emission rate of erbium near an interface," Phys. Rev. Lett. 74, 2459 (1995). [CrossRef]
40. C. Hägglund, M. Zäch, G. Petersson, and B. Kasemo, "Electromagnetic coupling of light into a silicon solar cell by nanodisk plasmons," Appl. Phys. Lett. 92, 053110 (2008). [CrossRef]
41. S. H. Lim, W. Mar, P. Matheu, D. Derkacs, and E. T. Yu, "Photocurrent spectroscopy of optical absorption enhancement in silicon photodiodes via scattering from surface plasmon polaritons in gold nanoparticles," J. Appl. Phys. 101, 104309 (2007). [CrossRef]

Author Affiliations

K. R. Catchpole, A. Polman

FOM Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics

Cited By

OSA is able to provide readers links to articles that cite this paper by participating in CrossRef's Cited-By Linking service. In addition to listing OSA journal articles that cite this paper, citing articles from other participating publishers will also be listed.

Advanced Search

Recent ToC Categories (Beta)

• Oct 08 2009 : See the latest ISP articles in the Applied Optics feature on Digital Holography in 3-D Imaging.
• Sep 25 2009 : Energy Express: Optics Express announces a special bi-monthly supplement dedicated to rapid developments in optics for sustainable energy.
• Sep 21 2009 : The 2009 Education and Training in Optics and Photonics papers are now available.

More News

• Invisibility Visualized
  Nov 12, 2009 - Scientists and curiosity seekers who want to know what a partially or... more
• Diamonds are a Laser's Best Friend
  Sep 18, 2009 - Tomorrow’s lasers may come with a bit of bling, thanks to a new... more
• Open Wide and Say ‘Zap’
  Aug 19, 2009 - A group of researchers in Australia and Taiwan has developed a new... more