Related papers: Fundamentals of PV Efficiency: Limits for Light Ab…
Taking into account the temperature gradients in solar cells, it is shown that their efficiency can be increased beyond the Shockley-Queisser limit (J. Appl. Phys. 32 (1961) 510). The driving force for this gain is the temperature gradient…
Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) show great promise as absorber materials in high-specific-power (i.e. high-power-per-weight) solar cells, due to their high optical absorption, desirable band gaps, and self-passivated surfaces.…
The problem of conversion of experimentally measured luminescence spectrum into the absorption cross section is revisited. The common practice of using the van Roosbroeck-Shockley (or Kubo-Martin-Schwinger or Kennard-Stepanov) relation in…
We investigate p-mode absorption in a sunspot using SOHO/MDI high-resolution Doppler images. The Doppler power computed from a three and a half hour data set is used for studying the absorption in a sunspot. The result shows an enhancement…
Photoabsorption cross sections of small sodium cluster cations (Na$_n^+$, n=3,5,7 and 9) were calculated at various temperatures with the time-dependent local-density-approximation (TDLDA) in conjunction with ab initio molecular dynamics…
The Rayleigh diffraction limit imposes a fundamental restriction on the resolution of direct imaging systems, hindering the identification of incoherent optical sources, such as celestial bodies in astronomy and fluorophores in bioimaging.…
We describe strategies to estimate the upper limits of the efficiency of photon energy harvesting via hot electron extraction from gapless absorbers. Gapless materials such as noble metals can be used for harvesting the whole solar…
Modern nanophotonic and meta-optical devices utilize a tremendous number of structural degrees of freedom to enhance light--matter interactions. A fundamental question is how large such enhancements can be. We develop an analytical…
The photosensitivity of silicon is inherently very low in the visible electromagnetic spectrum, and it drops rapidly beyond 800 nm in near-infrared wavelengths. Herein, we have experimentally demonstrated a technique utilizing…
Ultrathin planar absorbing layers, including semiconductor and metal films, and 2D materials, are promising building blocks for solar energy harvesting devices but poor light absorption has been a critical issue. Although interference in…
Since perovskite solar cells have attracted a lot of attentions over the past years, the enhancement of their optical absorption and current density are among the basic coming challenges. For this reason, first, we have studied structural…
We theoretically and numerically reveal that under a given level of extinction cross section and with definite angular momentum channels dominant, there exists a physical limitation for absorption cross section being maximum and scattering…
Ta$_{3}$N$_{5}$ is among the most intensively studied photoanode materials for solar-driven water oxidation, yet its performance often remains limited by short carrier lifetimes and defect mediated recombination. Although transient…
We report on the role of plasmonic resonances in determining the delicate balance between scattering and absorption of light in nanometric particle arrays applied to the front surface of solar cells. Strong parasitic absorption is shown to…
We show in this article the improvements which can be obtained in the description of the luminescence properties of Pr3+ doped materials by using an extension of the Judd-Ofelt theory in order to relax some strong selection rules and…
We reveal numerically and experimentally that dielectric resonance can enhance the absorbance and emission of monolayer MoS$_2$. By quantifying the absorbance of the Si disk resonators and the monolayer MoS$_2$ separately, a model taking…
The establishment of a rigorous theory on thermodynamics of light management in photovoltaics that accommodates various loss mechanisms as well as wave-optical effects in the absorption and reemission of light is at stake in this…
In the context of electromagnetic absorption, it is obvious that for an infinite planar periodic structure illuminated by a plane wave, the maximum attainable absorptance, i.e., perfect absorption, is theoretically limited to 100% of the…
Cloud absorption is acknowledged as the biggest source of uncertainty in the climate models. For over 70 years, many experiments have reported clouds absorbing more solar radiation than theory could predict. In the visible spectrum,…
Mechanisms to use nanoparticles to separate sunlight into photovoltaic useful range and thermally useful range to increase the efficiency of solar cells and to dissipate heat radiatively are discussed based upon lessons we learnt from…