Novel plasmonic materials to improve thin film solar cells efficiency

Thin film solar cells have been widely studied with the focus on how to improve light trapping mechanism and enhance the overall photon-electrons conversion efficiency. The effect of novel plasmonic materials based on wide bandgap semiconductors, such as metals heavily doped zinc oxides and metal nitrides, are here studied in relation to their potential use in thin film solar cells. Here, we show that metal nitrides can play similar roles as gold nanoparticles on a surface of a Si-thin film solar cell, possibly without introducing excessive dissipative absorption, while metals doped zinc oxide nanoparticles could significantly improve the efficiency of thin film solar cells.