Plasmonics for III–V semiconductor solar cells

III-V semiconductors like GaAs and InGaN are very promising candidates for solar cells. While GaAs has near-ideal bandgap to reach the maximum possible efficiency limit for single junction solar cells, InGaN provides the ability to tune the bandgap of absorbing layers over a wide energy range. Since III-V semiconductors are mostly direct bandgap semiconductors, they are also very strong absorbers of light. Currently novel solar cell designs based on nanostructured absorbers like quantum dots^1,2 or nanowires are under investigation to demonstrate high efficiency solar cells.