New Strategies for Solar Cells Beyond the Visible Spectral Range

The endeavor of the scientific community to maximize the possibility to harvest Sun irradiation for energy production is mainly devoted to the improvement of the power conversion efficiency of devices and to the extension of the spectral range in which solar devices operate. Considering that a significant portion of the Sun irradiation at the ground level is in the infrared, the research on materials and systems that operate in such region is gaining increasing attention. In this review, we will report recent advancements in multijunction solar cells, inorganic-organic perovskite solar cells, organic solar cells, colloidal quantum dot solar cells focusing on the absorption of such devices in the infrared. In addition, the use of upconverting nanostructures will be introduced as a way to indirectly exploit infrared radiation to increase power conversion efficiency of photovoltaic devices. Moreover, we will describe plasmon induced hot electron extraction based solar cells, that are particularly promising in absorbing the infrared portion of the Sun irradiation when the active materials are doped semiconductors, which show intense plasmonic resonances in the infrared. The review includes the optical spectroscopy tools to study the hot electron extraction from doped semiconductor-based heterojunctions.