Recent Advances in Plasmonic Perovskite Solar Cells

Abstract

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have emerged recently as promising candidates for next generation photovoltaics and have reached power conversion efficiencies of 25.2%. Among the various methods to advance solar cell technologies, the implementation of nanoparticles with plasmonic effects is an alternative way for photon and charge carrier management. Surface plasmons at the interfaces or surfaces of sophisticated metal nanostructures are able to interact with electromagnetic radiation. The properties of surface plasmons can be tuned specifically by controlling the shape, size, and dielectric environment of the metal nanostructures. Thus, incorporating metallic nanostructures in solar cells is reported as a possible strategy to explore the enhancement of energy conversion efficiency mainly in semi‐transparent solar cells. One particularly interesting option is PSCs with plasmonic structures enable thinner photovoltaic absorber layers without compromising their thickness while maintaining a high light harvest. In this Review, the effects of plasmonic nanostructures in electron transport material, perovskite absorbers, the hole transport material, as well as enhancement of effective refractive index of the medium and the resulting solar cell performance are presented. Aside from providing general considerations and a review of plasmonic nanostructures, the current efforts to introduce these plasmonic structures into semi‐transparent solar cells are outlined.

Synergetic Effect of Plasmonic Gold Nanorods and MgO for Perovskite Solar Cells

“…in photocurrent in the latter device compared to the former device suggested that localized surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and electrical effects of Au NRs enhance the PV response of the solar cells [11,[38][39][40].…”

“…From Table 1, compared with the PSC cell with pure MgO modification, the PSC cell containing both Au NRs and MgO coating displayed analogous V OC and FF values, but a remarkably higher short-circuit current. The increase in photocurrent in the latter device compared to the former device suggested that localized surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and electrical effects of Au NRs enhance the PV response of the solar cells [11,[38][39][40].…”

“…To promote the PCE of PSC solar cells, vigorous investigators have explored and established diversified device engineering approaches, such as interface modification, morphology optimization, defect and contact passivation, device structure design, light management, etc. [6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. It is well known that the organic-inorganic lead halide perovskites efficiently make use of the visible light spectrum of the solar energy from 350 to 750 nm.…”

Synthesis of Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) Ink by an Easy Hydrothermal Method

“…Therefore, it is necessary to have good control over the synthesis parameters to obtain the desired phase materials. 10 Among different morphologies, nanocrystals (NCs) provide the bandgap engineering in which there are several electron-holes series per photon, and provide opportunities for using in high-performance photovoltaic devices. The NCs powders can be synthesized through a wet chemical route for preparing the nanoparticle inks.…”

Investigating the Optical Behavior of Single/Multi-Dimensional Photonic Crystal Structures for Photovoltaic Applications

“…The light trapping structures can be divided into two main classifications, either by function or composition of the structure. The composition of the light trapping structure can be in the form of photonic crystal (PCs) [18] or plasmonics structures [1,16,17,[19][20][21][22][23]. The fabrication of PCs structures depends on the contrast between dielectric materials and semiconductor materials (refractive index contrast) which influences the optical properties of the structure [24].…”