Related papers: Fundamentals of PV Efficiency: Limits for Light Ab…
We employ a detailed balance approach to model a single-junction solar cell with a realistic narrow-band, non-unity-quantum-yield upconverter. As upconverter bandwidths are increased from 0 to 0.5 eV, maximum cell efficiencies increase from…
Conventional photocells suffer a fundamental efficiency threshold imposed by the principle of detailed balance, reflecting the fact that good absorbers must necessarily also be fast emitters. This limitation can be overcome by `parking' the…
A theory of light reflection and transmission by an optically thin nanocomposite slab which contains randomly distributed metal nanoparticles (NPs) is developed. The underlying model takes into account the reflection of light scattered by…
Perfect lensing using negative refractive index materials and radiationless electromagnetic interference both provide extreme subwavelength focusing by "amplifying" evanescent wave components that are usually lost. This paper provides a…
The absorption of light by materials is one of the most fundamental processes in optics and condensed-matter physics. Here we investigate whether laser light is absorbed by a crystalline material as an electromagnetic wave or as localized…
Luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) are able to concentrate both direct and diffuse solar radiation and this ability has led to great interest in using them to improve solar energy capture when coupled to traditional photovoltaics (PV).…
We study light absorption by weakly rough metal surfaces with the roughness amplitude and correlation length smaller than the skin depth in metal. We develop a systematic perturbative approach for calculation of the absorptance in such…
The thermodynamic limit of photovoltaic efficiency for a single-junction solar cell can be readily predicted using the bandgap of the active light absorbing material. Such an approach overlooks the energy loss due to non-radiative…
The theoretical maximum efficiency of a solar cell is typically characterized by a detailed balance of optical absorption and emission for a semiconductor in the limit of unity radiative efficiency and an ideal step-function response for…
We theoretically and numerically investigate the capability of disordered media to enhance the optical path length in dielectric slabs and augment their light absorption efficiency due to scattering. We first perform a series of Monte Carlo…
Solar thermal fuels (STFs) are an unconventional paradigm for solar energy conversion and storage which is attracting renewed attention. In this concept, a material absorbs sunlight and stores the energy chemically via an induced structural…
We introduce a limit for the strength of coupling light into the modes of solar cells. This limit depends on both a cell's thickness and its modal properties. For a cell with refractive index n and thickness d, we obtain a maximal coupling…
This work investigates the consequences of imposing a volume constraint on the maximum power that can be absorbed from progressive regular incident waves by an attenuating line absorber heaving in a travelling wave mode. Under assumptions…
One-dimensional lamellar gratings allow a particularly efficient way for solving Maxwell's equations by expanding the electromagnetic field in the basis of exact eigenmodes of the Helmholtz equation. Then, the solution can be expressed…
Absorption of a photon by an electron moving parallel to a rough surface is studied.In the weak scattering regime we have evaluated the absorption probability of absorption of a single photon. It is shown the absorption probability with…
For commercial one-sun solar modules, up to 80% of the incoming sunlight may be dissipated as heat, potentially raising the temperature 20 C - 30 C higher than the ambient. In the long term, extreme self-heating erodes efficiency and…
The design and fabrication of a metal-dielectric-metal absorber that achieves strong absorption from the ultraviolet (UV) to the near-infrared (near-IR) spectrum are presented. The proposed nanostructure consists of a periodic titanium (Ti)…
Based on fundamental properties of light scattering by a particle we reveal the existence of the ultimate upper limit for the light absorption by any partial mode. First, we obtain this result for scattering of a plane wave by a symmetric…
The resonant absorption of light by an ensemble of absorbers decreases when the resonance is inhomogeneously broadened, as only a fraction of the ensemble contributes to the absorption at any given optical frequency. Recovering the lost…
The energy and nuclear mass dependences of the total hadronic cross section in the energy range 0.5-2.6 GeV have been measured at Bonn using the SAPHIR tagged photon beam. The measurement, performed on C, Al, Cu, Sn and Pb, provides the…