Nanoparticle-based plasmonic organic photovoltaic devices

Plasmonic metallic nanoparticles (NPs) have recently been identified as a breakthrough route for enhancing the efficiency of organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices. The present review highlights the different strategies of incorporating plasmonic NPs for light trapping into either the active or the buffer layer or at various interfaces within the OPV cell architecture. In addition, it summarizes the different enhancement mechanisms that have been proposed and indicates future trends in the development of NPs-based solution processable OPVs. The aim is to distinguish among the different plasmonic effects and to propose potential strategies for performance optimization.