Plasmon-enhanced internal photoemission for photovoltaics: Theoretical efficiency limits

Plasmon-enhanced internal photoemission in metal-semiconductor Schottky junctions has recently been proposed as an alternative photocurrent mechanism for solar cells. Here, we identify and discuss the requirements for efficient operation of such cells and analyze their performance limits under standard solar illumination. We show that the maximum efficiency limit is <8% even if perfect optical absorption can be achieved using plasmonic nanostructures. This limit results from the fundamental electronic properties of metallic absorbers. Modifying the electron density of states of the absorber could increase the efficiency to >20%. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4746425]