Hot carrier solar cells have the promise to increase photovoltaic conversion efficiency beyond the Shockley-Quiesser limit and towards the thermodynamic maximum of 85%. The concept relies on the ability to extract photo-generated electrons from an absorber region faster than they can lose energy to the lattice in a process termed thermalisation. We have previously presented a realization of such a cell under limited operating conditions, in particular at low temperature, for narrowband illumination and with low total absorption of light. In this work we present the idea of a metallic absorber to address some of these limitations and show how such an absorber is a promising candidate to realize the hot carrier solar cell. In addition to a theoretical justification of the metallic hot carrier solar cell, we show device fabrication and experimental current-voltage characteristics of an initial cell, showing absorption of light in a thin-film metal region and a photo-current driven by this absorption.
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