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The photoelectric conversion efficiency of a solar cell is dependent on its temperature. When the solar radiation is incident on the photovoltaics (PV) panel, a large portion of it is absorbed by the underlying material which increases its…
Obtaining the physical mechanism of photoelectric transfer in quantum-dot (QD) photocells may be one strategy to boost the photovoltaic conversion efficiency. In this work, we attempted to formulate a novel theoretical approach to evaluate…
We introduce a simple two-level heat engine to study the efficiency in the condition of the maximum power output, depending on the energy levels from which the net work is extracted. In contrast to the quasi-statically operated Carnot…
A modified detailed balance model is built to understand and quantify efficiency loss of perovskite solar cells. The modified model captures the light-absorption dependent short-circuit current, contact and transport-layer modified carrier…
For efficient photovoltaic conversion, it is important to understand how quantum entropy-related quantities evolve during the photovoltaic process. In this study, using a double quantum dot (DQD) photocell model, we explored the dynamic…
Photosynthesis is the basic process used by plants to convert light energy in reaction centers into chemical energy. The high efficiency of this process is not yet understood today. Using the formalism for the description of open quantum…
Methods of exceeding the detailed balance limit for a single junction solar cell have included down-converting high energy photons to produce two photons; and carrier multiplication, whereby high energy photons produce more than one…
Understanding the thermodynamics of radiation and the quantum-mechanical interactions between light and matter is important both for theoretical purposes and for technological advances, such as determining the limits of key processes like…
In single-junction photovoltaic (PV) devices, the maximum achievable power conversion efficiency (PCE) is mainly limited by thermalization and transmission losses, because polychromatic solar irradiation cannot be matched to a single…
We derive an efficiency bound for continuous quantum heat engines absorbing heat from squeezed thermal reservoirs. Our approach relies on a full-counting statistics description of nonequilibrium transport and it is not limited to the…
Photogalvanic solar cells, the original dye based solar cell, have yet to fulfill their promise as a low fabrication cost, scalable energy conversion system. The efficient performance of photogalvanic cells relies on high dye solubility and…
Among several solutions to exploit solar energy, thermophotovoltaics (TPV) have been popularized and have known great breakthroughs during the past two decades. Yet, existing systems still have low efficiencies since the wavelength range of…
Thermophotovoltaics (TPV) are a promising new approach for converting heat to electricity. Their performance is primarily characterized by two metrics: efficiency and power density. While recent works have shown high efficiency, it is…
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…
Energy level diagrams in organic electronic devices play a crucial role in device performance and interpretation of device physics. In the case of organic solar cells, it has become routine to estimate the photovoltaic gap of the…
We explore energy transfer in a generic three-level system, which is coupled to three non-equilibrium baths. Built on the concept of quantum heat engine, our three-level model describes non-equilibrium quantum processes including…
Polymer based organic photovoltaic (OPV) technology offers a relatively inexpensive option for solar energy conversion provided its efficiency increases beyond the current level (6-7%) along with significant improvements in operational…
The Shockley-Queisser model is a landmark in photovoltaic device analysis by defining an ideal situation as reference for actual solar cells. However, the model and its implications are easily misunderstood. Thus, we present a guide to help…
A quantum-mechanical analog of the Carnot engine reversibly working at vanishing temperature, shortly termed the quantum-mechanical Carnot engine, is discussed. A general formula for the efficiency of such an engine with an arbitrary…
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…