Plasmonics in Organic Solar Cells: Toward Versatile Applications

Remarkable progress has been made in organic solar cells (OSCs), which are considered as one of the most promising next-generation photovoltaic technologies. Nevertheless, the inadequate light harvesting of the active layer with a limited thickness remains a critical challenge for high-performance OSCs. To address this issue, plasmonic nanostructures have been widely used to improve the light absorption and facilitate the charge extraction and collection in OSCs. In addition to the commonly reported approaches, this Spotlight focuses on the recent progress of three specific plasmonic applications in OSCs, namely, broadband optical enhancement from the visible to near-infrared wavelength region, semitransparent OSCs, and plasmonic electrodes, providing comprehensive insight into future plasmonic-enhanced OSCs toward versatile applications.