Absorption enhancement in solar cells by localized plasmon polaritons

By means of a rigorous diffraction theory, we investigate the possibility to enhance the absorption in solar cells by employing localized plasmon polaritons excited in metallic nanowires. The solar cells are assumed to be made of amorphous silicon. We identify two reasons for increased absorption; namely, the giant near-field enhancement and the enhanced scattering cross section upon exciting localized plasmon polaritons. It will be shown that by a careful and rational adjustment of the system parameters an enhancement in the number of absorbed photons from the solar spectrum up to a factor of 1.6 is feasible.