Thin-film solar cells enhanced by non-plasmonic metal nanoantennas

Metal nanoantennas with some combination of design parameters can operate as if they were perfectly conducting elements. They can trap the light do to collective effects and do not exploit the plasmonic properties of the metal. This prevents the harmful dissipation of the solar light in metal elements and offers the broadband light trapping. For very thin photovoltaic layers the array of such nanoantennas combined with the dielectric superstrate operates better than other light-trapping structures and than the simple antireflecting coating. This work was supported by the Pre-seed project “Custom-design thin-film solar cells with light-trapping covering” of the Aalto Center of Entrepreneurship.