Published July 30, 2025 | Version CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0
Journal article Open

Review of Progress on Plasmonic Enhanced Solar Cells

Authors/Creators

  • 1. Department of Physics, The University of Zambia, School of Natural Sciences, Lusaka, Zambia.

Contributors

  • 1. Department of Physics, The University of Zambia, School of Natural Sciences, Lusaka, Zambia.

Description

Abstract: Developments in plasmonic photovoltaics have yielded new mechanisms of trapping light. In this review, we provide an overview of the light-trapping mechanisms to improve the efficiency of solar cells. Specifically, this work presents a concise review and addresses factors such as light absorption, light scattering, near-field enhancement, and localised surface plasmons. Light absorption and charge recombination are the major limiting factors affecting the efficiency of photovoltaic solar cells. The review also examines emerging theories and their relationship to technologies involving plasmonic materials. The use of metallic nanoparticles in solar cells enables the occurrence of surface plasmon resonance (SPR). Surface plasmon resonance occurs when light excites the electrons at the metal surface, causing electrons in the metal to become excited and move parallel to the surface. The surface plasmon resonance induces a resonance effect that occurs when the conduction electrons of metal nanoparticles interact with incident photons. This resonance effect generates an oscillating electric field that drives the conduction electrons to oscillate coherently, inducing a localised surface plasmon (LSP). These localised surface plasmon results in absorption and scattering of light. Light is deflected or re-radiated by the metallic nanoparticles due to the excitation of localised surface plasmons. Hence, plasmonic metallic nanoparticles improve the efficiency of solar cells by concentrating or trapping light at the absorber layer. The dimensions, such as size and shape of the nanoparticles, directly influence both light scattering and near-field enhancement. The elongated nanoparticles interact more effectively with light than spherical nanoparticles, resulting in improved light absorption and enhanced solar cell efficiency.

Files

H261013080725.pdf

Files (545.4 kB)

Name Size Download all
md5:3d789dfb937b2c1a32997b92c64da041
545.4 kB Preview Download

Additional details

Identifiers

DOI
10.35940/ijese.H2610.13080725
EISSN
2319-6378

Dates

Accepted
2025-07-15
Manuscript received on 16 June 2025 | First Revised Manuscript received on 26 June 2025 | Second Revised Manuscript received on 08 July 2025 | Manuscript Accepted on 15 July 2025 | Manuscript published on 30 July 2025.

References

  • Jaiswal, K. K. et al. Renewable and sustainable clean energy development and impact on social, economic, and environmental health. Energy Nexus, vol. 7, Preprint (2022). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nexus.2022.100118
  • Mostakim, K. & Hasanuzzaman, M. Solar photovoltaic thermal systems. in Technologies for Solar Thermal Energy: Theory, Design and, Optimization 123–150 (Elsevier, 2022). DOI: http://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-823959-9.00005-2
  • Gielen, D. et al. The role of renewable energy in the global energy transformation. Energy Strategy Reviews 24, 38–50 (2019). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esr.2019.01.006
  • Chen, L. X. Organic Solar Cells: Recent Progress and Challenges. ACS Energy Letters vol. 4 2537–2539 Preprint at (2019). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsenergylett.9b02071
  • Sun, C., Wang, Z., Wang, X. & Liu, J. A Surface Design for Enhancement of Light Trapping Efficiencies in Thin Film Silicon Solar Cells. Plasmonics11, 1003–1010 (2016) DOI: http://doi.org/10.1007/s11468-015-0135-8
  • Shaghouli, E., Granpayeh, N. & Manavizadeh, N. Plasmonic enhanced ultra-thin solar cell: A combined approach using fractal and nanoantenna structure to maximize absorption. Results Phys50 (2023). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rinp.2023.106600
  • Murugadoss, G., Murugan, D., Bhojanaa, K. B. & Pandikumar, A. Plasmonic Photoanodes for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells. in Encyclopedia of Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment (First Edition) (ed. Rahimpour, M. R.) 789–798 (Elsevier, Oxford, 2024). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-323-93940-9.00138-9
  • Shiyani, T., Mahapatra, S.K. & Banerjee, I. Plasmonic Solar Cells. In Fundamentals of Solar Cell Design (2023). DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/9781119725022.ch2
  • Olaimat, M., Yousefi, L., Ramahi, O., Olaimat, M. M. & Ramahi, O. M. Using Plasmonics and Nanoparticles to Enhance the Efficiency of Solar Cells: Review of Latest Technologies. Microwave Near-Field Sensors for Material Detection View Project Using Plasmonics and Nanoparticles to Enhance the Efficiency of Solar Cells: Review of Latest Technologies. (2021). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348339454
  • Huang, Q. H. X. F. Z. Lu, Y. Plasmonic Thin Film Solar Cells. Nanostructured Solar Cells InTech (2017) https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/52513
  • Jia, N. et al. Thermoelectric materials and transport physics. Materials Today Physics21, 100519 (2021). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtphys.2021.100519
  • Mangalgiri, G. M., Manley, P., Riedel, W. & Schmid, M. Dielectric Nanorod Scattering and its Influence on Material Interfaces. Sci Rep 7, (2017). DOI: http://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-03721-w
  • Amalathas, A. P. & Alkaisi, M. M. Nanostructures for light trapping in thin film solar cells. Micromachines, vol. 10, Preprint (2019). DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/mi10090619
  • Zhou, J. & Vijayavenkataraman, S. 3D-printable conductive materials for tissue engineering and biomedical applications. Bioprinting vol. 24 Preprint at (2021). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bprint.2021.e00166
  • Olaimat, M. M., Yousefi, L. & Ramahi, O. M. Using plasmonics and nanoparticles to enhance the efficiency of solar cells: review of latest technologies. Journal of the Optical Society of America B38, 638 (2021). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1364/JOSAB.411712
  • Jang, Y. H. et al. Plasmonic Solar Cells: From Rational Design to Mechanism Overview. Chemical Reviews vol. 116 Preprint at DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemrev.6b00302
  • Mcoyi, M. P., Mpofu, K. T., Sekhwama, M. & Mthunzi-Kufa, P. Developments in Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance. Plasmonics Preprint at (2024). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11468-024-02620-x
  • Mcoyi, M. P., Mpofu, K. T., Sekhwama, M. & Mthunzi-Kufa, P. Developments in Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance. Plasmonics Preprint at (2024). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11468-024-02620-x
  • Mandal, P. & Sharma, S. Progress in plasmonic solar cell efficiency improvement: A status review. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews65, 537–552 (2016). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2016.07.031
  • Zhang, Z., Fang, Y., Wang, W., Chen, L. & Sun, M. Propagating Surface Plasmon Polaritons: Towards Applications for RemoteExcitation Surface Catalytic Reactions. Advanced Science3, 1500215 (2016). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.201500215
  • Mohsin, A. S. M. et al. Efficiency improvement of thin film solar cell using silver pyramid array and antireflective layer. Heliyon9, (2023).DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e16749
  • Hekmat, M., Shafiekhani, A. & Khabir, M. Near field and far field plasmonic enhancements with bilayers of different dimensions AgNPs@DLC for improved current density in silicon solar. Sci Rep12, (2022). DOI: http://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-22911-9
  • Jang, Y. H. et al. Plasmonic Solar Cells: From Rational Design to Mechanism Overview. Chem Rev116, (2016). DOI: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.chemrev.6b00302
  • Jana, J., Ganguly, M. & Pal, T. Enlightening Surface Plasmon Resonance Effect of Metal Nanoparticles for Practical Spectroscopic Application. RSC Adv.6, (2016). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/C6RA14173K
  • Karak, N. Chapter 1 - Fundamentals of Nanomaterials and Polymer Nanocomposites. In Nanomaterials and Polymer Nanocomposites (ed. Karak, N.) 1–45 (Elsevier, 2019). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-814615-6.00001-1
  • Shih, C. K. & Sanders, C. Low-loss plasmonic metals epitaxially grown on semiconductors. in Plasmonic Materials and Metastructures: Fundamentals, Current Status, and Perspectives 73–101 (Elsevier, 2023). DOI: http://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-323-85379-8.00003-4
  • Ali, A., El-Mellouhi, F., Mitra, A. & Aïssa, B. Research Progress of Plasmonic Nanostructure-Enhanced Photovoltaic Solar Cells. Nanomaterials12, 788 (2022). DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/nano12050788
  • Alzoubi, F. Y., Ahmad, A. A., Aljarrah, I. A., Migdadi, A. B. & AlBataineh, Q. M. Localize surface plasmon resonance of silver nanoparticles using Mie theory. Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics34, (2023). DOI: http://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-023-11304-x
  • Alkhalayfeh, M. A., Aziz, A. A. & Pakhuruddin, M. Z. An overview of enhanced polymer solar cells with embedded plasmonic nanoparticles. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews141, 110726 (2021). DOI: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2021.110726
  • Chen, Y., Cheng, Y. & Sun, M. Physical Mechanisms on PlasmonEnhanced Organic Solar Cells. Journal of Physical Chemistry C125, 21301–21309 (2021). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.1c07020
  • Shin, J. et al. Harvesting near- and far-field plasmonic enhancements from large size gold nanoparticles for improved performance in organic bulk heterojunction solar cells. Org Electron66, 94–101 (2019). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgel.2018.12.024
  • Ibrahim Zamkoye, I., Lucas, B. & Vedraine, S. Synergistic Effects of Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance, Surface Plasmon Polariton, and Waveguide Plasmonic Resonance on the Same Material: A Promising Hypothesis to Enhance Organic Solar Cell Efficiency. Nanomaterials13, (2023). DOI: http://doi.org/10.3390/nano13152209
  • Hekmat, M., Shafiekhani, A. & Khabir, M. Near field and far field plasmonic enhancements with bilayers of different dimensions AgNPs@DLC for improved current density in silicon solar. Sci Rep 12, (2022). https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-22911-9
  • Alkhalayfeh, M. A., Aziz, A. A. & Pakhuruddin, M. Z. An overview of enhanced polymer solar cells with embedded plasmonic nanoparticles. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews141, 110726 (2021). DOI: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2021.110726
  • Mulat, S. A., Hone, F. G., Bekri, N. &Tegegne, N. A. Improving the Light Harvest of Plasmonic-Based Organic Solar Cells by Utilizing Dielectric Core–Shells. Plasmonics (2024) DOI: http://doi.org/10.1007/s11468-024-02597-7
  • Manjavacas, A., Zundel, L. & Sanders, S. Analysis of the Limits of the Near-Field Produced by Nanoparticle Arrays. ACS Nano13, (2019). https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acsnano.9b05031
  • Yu, H., Peng, Y., Yang, Y. & Li, Z. Y. Plasmon-enhanced light–matter interactions and applications. npj Computational Materials vol. 5 Preprint at (2019). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41524-019-0184-1
  • Wang, X., Wang, J. & Sun, M. Plasmon-driven molecular photodissociations. Appl Mater Today 15, 212–235 (2019). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apmt.2019.01.011
  • Olaimat, M., Yousefi, L., Ramahi, O., Olaimat, M. M. & Ramahi, O. M. Using Plasmonics and Nanoparticles to Enhance the Efficiency of Solar Cells: Review of Latest Technologies. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348339454 (2021)
  • Ou, W. et al. iScience Plasmonic metal nanostructures: concepts, challenges and opportunities in photo-mediated chemical transformations. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2020.101982
  • Fu, X. & Cui, T. J. Recent progress on metamaterials: From effective medium model to real-time information processing system. Prog Quantum Electron 67, 100223 (2019). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pquantelec.2019.05.001
  • Hassan, S., El-Shaer, A., Oraby, A. H. & Salim, E. Investigations of charge extraction and trap-assisted recombination in polymer solar cells via hole transport layer doped with NiO nanoparticles. Opt. Mater. (Amst) 145, 114413 (2023). DOI: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.optmat.2023.114413
  • Nourolahi, H., Behjat, A., Hosseini Zarch, S. M. M. & Bolorizadeh, M. A. Silver nanoparticle plasmonic effects on hole-transport material-free mesoporous heterojunction perovskite solar cells. Solar Energy139, 475–483 (2016). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2016.10.023
  • Sun, Y. et al. Improving light harvesting and charge extraction of polymer solar cells upon buffer layer doping. Solar Energy 202, 80–85 (2020). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2020.03.105
  • Bastianini, F. et al. Using Ag nanoparticles in the electron transport layer of perovskite solar cells to improve efficiency. Solar Energy268, 112318 (2024). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2024.112318
  • Khdary, N. H., Almuarqab, B. T. & El Enany, G. NanoparticleEmbedded Polymers and Their Applications: A Review. Membranes vol. 13 Preprint at DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/membranes13050537 (2023).
  • Omrani, M. K., Fallah, H., Choy, K. L. & Abdi-Jalebi, M. Impact of hybrid plasmonic nanoparticles on the charge carrier mobility of P3HT: PCBM polymer solar cells. Sci Rep 11, (2021). https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-99095-1
  • Alkhalayfeh, M. A., Aziz, A. A., Pakhuruddin, M. Z. & Katubi, K. M. M. Plasmonic Effects of Au@Ag Nanoparticles in Buffer and Active Layers of Polymer Solar Cells for Efficiency Enhancement. Materials 15 15 (2022). DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/ma15165472
  • Ali, A., El-Mellouhi, F., Mitra, A. & Aïssa, B. Research Progress of Plasmonic Nanostructure-Enhanced Photovoltaic Solar Cells. Nanomaterials12, 788 (2022). DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/nano12050788
  • Shaghouli, E., Granpayeh, N. & Manavizadeh, N. Plasmonic enhanced ultra-thin solar cell: A combined approach using fractal and nanoantenna structure to maximize absorption. Results Phys50 (2023). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2009.08.006
  • Liu, S. et al. A review on plasmonic nanostructures for efficiency enhancement of organic solar cells. Materials Today Physics24, 100680 (2022). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtphys.2022.100680
  • Omrani, M. K., Fallah, H., Choy, K. L. & Abdi-Jalebi, M. Impact of hybrid plasmonic nanoparticles on the charge carrier mobility of P3HT: PCBM polymer solar cells. Sci Rep 11, (2021). https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-99095-1
  • Josein Mohammadi, M., Eskandari, M. & Fathi, D. Effects of the location and size of plasmonic nanoparticles (Ag and Au) in improving the optical absorption and efficiency of perovskite solar cells. J Alloys Compd877, 160177 (2021). DOI: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jallcom.2021.160177