Nanostructures for Enhanced Light Absorption in Solar Energy Devices
Figure 1
Different coupling modes of light in nanostructures and main mechanisms for charge carrier generation following the particle generation. (a) the principle of geometrical optical resonances (WGM) (note the high diffractive index). (b) Plasmon nanoparticles scatter and efficiently couple light into waveguided modes. The prolonged optical paths in (a, b) lead to enhanced total absorption and enhanced e-h-pair generation. (c) The near field intensity and gradients lead to locally increased e-h generation rates. (d) A plasmonic grating at the backside of a semiconductor couples light into SPPs that excite e-h pairs in the semiconductor with direct injection of the carriers to the empty electron bands.
