Results and Publications

Research Areas & Activities Solar Energy Rational Organic Semiconductor Material Design A Pathway Towards Breakthrough Performance in Solar Cells Design and Fabrication of the First All-Carbon-Based Solar Cell Upconverting Electrodes for Improved Solar Energy Conversion Advanced Electron Transport Materials for Application in Organic Photovoltaics (OPV) Ultra-High Efficiency Thermophotovoltaic Solar Cells Using Metallic Photonic Crystals as Intermediate Absorber and Emitter Nanostructured Materials for High-Efficiency Thin Film Solar Cells Photon Enhanced Thermionic Emission (PETE) for Solar Concentrator Systems Hot Carrier Solar Cell: Implementation of the Ultimate Photovoltaic Converter Plasmonic Photovoltaics Self-sorting of Metallic Carbon Nanotubes for High Performance Large Area Low Cost Transparent Electrodes Artificial Photosynthesis: Membrane-Supported Assemblies that Use Sunlight to Split Water Lateral Nanoconcentrator Nanowire Multijunction Photovoltaic Cells Molecular Solar Cells Advanced Materials and Devices for Low-Cost and High-Performance Organic Photovoltaic Cells Inorganic Nanocomposite Solar Cells by ALD Nanostructured Silicon-Based Tandem Solar Cells Photosynthetic Bioelectricity Nanostructured Metal-Organic Composite Solar Cells Ordered Bulk Heterojunction Photovoltaic Cells Biomass Energy Hydrogen Advanced Combustion CO₂ Capture CO₂ Storage Advanced Materials & Catalysts Advanced Coal Advanced Transportation Advanced Electric Grid Grid Storage Other Renewables Integrated Assessment Advanced Nuclear Energy Geoengineering Exploratory Efforts All Activities Analysis Activities Technical Reports

Research

Plasmonic Photovoltaics

Start Date: September 2007
Status: Completed

Investigators

Harry A. Atwater, California Institute of Technology; Mark Brongersma, Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University; Albert Polman, Utrecht University, The Netherlands

Annual Reports

Publications

Polman, A. and H. A. Atwater. "Photonic design principles for ultrahigh-efficiency photovoltaics." Nature Materials 11, no. 3 (2012): 174-177.
van de Groep, J., P. Spinelli, and A. Polman. "Transparent conducting silver nanowire networks." Nano Letters 12, no. 6 (2012): 3138-3144.
P. Spinelli and A. Polman. "Prospects of near-field plasmonic absorption enhancement in semiconductor materials using embedded Ag nanoparticles." Optics Express 20, no. S5 (2012): A641-A654.
Spinelli, P., M. A. Verschuuren, and A. Polman. "Broadband omnidirectional antireflection coating based on subwavelength surface Mie resonators." Nature Communications 3 (2012): 692.
Spinelli, P., V. E. Ferry, J. Van de Groep, M. Van Lare, M. A. Verschuuren, R. E. I. Schropp, H. A. Atwater, and A. Polman. "Plasmonic light trapping in thin-film Si solar cells." Journal of Optics 14, no. 2 (2012): 024002.
Spinelli, P., C. van Lare, E. Verhagen, and A. Polman. "Controlling fano lineshapes in plasmon-mediated light coupling into a substrate," Optics Express 19, A303, doi: 10.1364/OE.19.00A303 (2011).
Beck, F. J., E. Verhagen, S. Mokkapati, A. Polman, and K. R. Catchpole. “Resonant SPP modes supported by discrete metal nanoparticles on high-index substrate,” Optics Express 19, A146, doi: 10.1364/OE.19.00A146 (2011).
Mokkapati, S., F. J. Beck, R. de Waele, A. Polman, and K. R. Catchpole. “Resonant nano-antennas for light trapping in plasmonic solar cells", J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 44, 185101, doi: 10.1088/0022-3727/44/18/185101 (2011).
Spinelli, P., M. Hebbink, R. de Waele, L. Black, F. Lenzmann, and A. Polman. “Optical impedance matching using coupled metal nanoparticle arrays,” Nano Lett. 11, 1760 (2011).
Atwater H. A. and A. Polman. “Plasmonics for improved photovoltaic devices.” Nature Materials 9, 205 - 213 (invited review, 2010).
Beck, F. J., S. Mokkapati, A. Polman, and K. R. Catchpole. “Asymmetry in photocurrent enhancement by plasmonic nanoparticle arrays located on the front or on the rear of solar cells.” Appl. Phys. Lett. 96, 033113 (2010).
Ferry, V. E. J. N. Munday, and H. A. Atwater, “Design considerations for plasmonic photovoltaics,” Adv. Mat., (invited review, accepted, 2010).
H. A. Atwater and A. Polman. “Plasmonics for improved photovoltaic devices.” Nature Materials 9, 205 and Editorial article (2010).
Pryce, I., A. J. Fischer, D. D. Koleske and H. A. Atwater. “Plasmonic nanoparticle enhanced photocurrent in GaN/InGaN/GaN quantum well solar cells.” Applied Physics Letters 96, 153501 (2010).
Pala, R. A., J. White, E. Barnard, J. Liu, and M. L. Brongersma. “Design of plasmonic thin-film solar cells with broadband absorption enhancements.” Advanced Materials, Vol. 21, No. 34, pp. 3504-3509, doi:10.1002/adma.200900331 (2009).
Ferry, V. E., M. A. Verschuuren, H. B. T. Li, R. E. I. Schropp, H. A. Atwater, and A. Polman. “Improved red-response in thin fFilm a-Si:H solar cells with soft-imprinted plasmonic back reflectors.” Appl. Phys. Lett., 95, 183503 (2009).
Beck, F.J., A. Polman, and K. R. Catchpole. “Tunable light trapping for solar cells using localised surface plasmons.” J. Appl. Phys. 105, 114310 (2009).
Mokapati, S., F. J. Beck, A. Polman, and K. R. Catchpole. “Designing periodic arrays of metal nanoparticles for light trapping applications in solar cells.” Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, 53115 (2009).
Barnard, E. S., J. S. White, A. Chandran, and M. L. Brongersma. “Spectral properties of plasmonic resonator antennas.” Optics Express, Vol. 16, No. 21, pp. 16529-16537, doi:10.1364/OE.16.016529 (2008).
Polman, A. “Plasmonics applied.” Science 322, 868 (2008).
Catchpole K. R. and A. Polman. “Design principles for particle plasmon enhanced solar cells.” Appl. Phys. Lett. 93, 191113 (2008).

Updated January 2013