  Using metamaterial absorbers, we have shown that metallic layers in the
absorbers do not necessarily constitute undesired resistive heating problem for
photovoltaics. Tailoring the geometric skin depth of metals and employing the
natural bulk absorbance characteristics of the semiconductors in those
absorbers can enable the exchange of undesired resistive losses with the useful
optical absorbance in the active semiconductors. Thus, Ohmic loss dominated
metamaterial absorbers can be converted into photovoltaic near-perfect
absorbers with the advantage of harvesting the full potential of light
management offered by the metamaterial absorbers. Based on experimental
permittivity data for indium gallium nitride, we have shown that between
75%-95% absorbance can be achieved in the semiconductor layers of the converted
metamaterial absorbers. Besides other metamaterial and plasmonic devices, our
results may also apply to photodectors and other metal or semiconductor based
optical devices where resistive losses and power consumption are important
pertaining to the device performance.
