Related papers: Theoretical Efficiency Comparison between Carrier …
In conventional solar cell semiconductor materials (predominantly Si) photons with energy higher than the band gap initially generate hot electrons and holes, which subsequently cool down to the band edge by phonon emission. Due to the…
Hot-carrier solar cells are envisioned to utilize energy filtering to extract power from photogenerated electron-hole pairs before they thermalize with the lattice, and thus potentially offer higher power conversion efficiency compared to…
Carrier multiplication (CM), a photo-physical process to generate multiple electron-hole pairs by exploiting excess energy of free carriers, is explored for efficient photovoltaic conversion of photons from the blue solar band,…
In conventional solar cells, photogenerated carriers lose part of their energy before they can be extracted to make electricity. The aim of hot-carrier solar cells is to extract the carriers before this energy loss, thereby turning more…
A new thermodynamic limit for the open circuit voltage of solar cells that includes thermalization is obtained in terms of photon entropy. A simple graphical construction makes it possible to link this limit to the existing limits for…
The hotness of the sun and the coldness of the outer space are inexhaustible thermodynamic resources for human beings. From a thermodynamic point of view, any energy conversion systems that receive energy from the sun and/or dissipate…
Singlet fission, an exciton multiplication process in organic semiconductors which converts one singlet exciton into two triplet excitons is a promising way to reduce thermalization losses in conventional solar cells. One way to harvest…
Being a source of clean and renewable energy, the possibility to convert solar radiation in electric current with high efficiency is one of the most important topics of modern scientific research. Currently the exploitation of interaction…
Carrier multiplication (CM), where the absorption of a single photon results in the generation of several electron-hole pairs via impact ionization, plays a pivotal role in the quest for enhancing the performance of solar cells beyond the…
Hot-carrier solar cells use the photon excess energy, that is, the energy exceeding the absorber bandgap, to do additional work. These devices have the potential to beat the upper limit for the photovoltaic power conversion efficiency set…
Recently, significant progress in the development of III-V/Si dual-junction solar cells has been achieved. This not only boosts the efficiency of Si-based photovoltaic solar cells, but also offers the possibility of highly efficient green…
An isolated single-junction solar cell's temperature in outer space depends only on its radiation exchange with its environment. We consider a cell with zero emissivity below its bandgap and unity above it -- an idealization so far…
The maximal concentration limit of solar radiation for photovoltaic applications is assumed to be constant, at Cmax\approx46,000 suns. This limit is easily found via a geometrical application of the 2nd law of thermodynamics to a radiation…
A design tool was formulated for optimizing the efficiency of inorganic, thin-film, photovoltaic solar cells. The solar cell can have multiple semiconductor layers in addition to antireflection coatings, passivation layers, and buffer…
We develop a new approach to calculate the obtainable limit of photoconversion efficiency of tandem solar cells (SCs) and applied it to SCs with both vertical and lateral designs at AM0 and AM1.5 conditions. To get the maximum efficiency,…
We evaluate entropy production in a photovoltaic cell that is modeled by four electronic levels resonantly coupled to thermally populated field modes at different temperatures. We use a formalism recently proposed, the so-called multiple…
III-V materials show a wide range of gaps making them ideal for the design of high efficiency solar cells. This chapter reviews relevant growth methods and material properties of these materials and discusses methods of combining…
While renewable energies are achieving parity around the globe, efforts to reach higher solar cell efficiencies becomes ever more difficult as they approach the limiting efficiency. The so-called third generation concepts attempt to break…
We studied the recombination dynamics of charge carriers in organic bulk heterojunction solar cells made of the blend system poly(2,5-bis(3-dodecyl thiophen-2-yl) thieno[2,3-b]thiophene) (pBTCT-C12):[6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl…
Extraction of charge carriers from a hot carrier solar cell using energy selective contacts, and the impact on limiting power conversion efficiency is analyzed. It is shown that assuming isentropic conversion of carrier heat into voltage…