Related papers: Limit of light coupling strength in solar cells
In this paper we study CdS/CdTe solar cells by means of AMPS-1D software. First we study the effect of thickness of semiconductor layers on the output parameters of the CdS/CdTe solar cell, such as density of short-circuit current, open…
The Shockley-Queisser (S-Q) theory defines the thermodynamic upper limits for Jsc, Voc, FF, and efficiency of a solar cell. The classical calculation assumes an abrupt onset of absorption at the band-edge, perfect absorption for all…
Understanding the maximal enhancement of solar absorption in semiconductor materials by light trapping promises the development of affordable solar cells. However, the conventional Lambertian limit is only valid for idealized material…
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…
A 2-D photonic crystal was integrated experimentally into a thin-film crystalline-silicon solar cell of 1-{\mu}m thickness, after numerical optimization maximizing light absorption in the active material. The photonic crystal boosted the…
We investigate the angular behavior of the upper bound of absorption provided by the guided modes in thin film solar cells. We show that the 4n^2 limit can be potentially exceeded in a wide angular and wavelength range using two-dimensional…
Hot carrier solar cells allow potential efficiency close to the thermodynamical limit in ideal conditions. However, the feasability of such devices has not been clearly stated so far and only ideal cells were considered in previous studies.…
With the consideration of photon recycling effect, the efficiency limit of methylammonium lead iodide (CH3NH3PbI3) perovskite solar cells is predicted by a detailed balance model. To obtain convincing predictions, both AM 1.5 spectrum of…
The ability to absorb light is indispensable for high efficient solar power generation. This places conflicting requirements on the structure of a solar cell: On one hand, it needs to have thick active layers to absorb more of the available…
Hot carrier solar cells promise theoretical power conversion efficiencies far beyond the single junction limit. However, practical implementations of hot carrier solar cells have lagged far behind those theoretical predictions. Reciprocity…
The increase of cell efficiency resulting from using a diffraction grating as a back reflector is investigated. An enhancement coefficient is introduced as a figure of merit that accounts for the ability of the rear grating to increase the…
The Shockley-Queisser limit is one of the most fundamental results in the field of photovoltaics. Based on the principle of detailed balance, it defines an upper limit for a single junction solar cell that uses an absorber material with a…
When the quality of multijunction solar cells becomes sufficiently high, radiative exchange of photons between cells has to be taken into account to properly model these devices. In this work it is shown how this radiative coupling can be…
Photon recycling is required for a solar cell to achieve an open-circuit voltage ($V_{OC}$) and power conversion efficiency (PCE) approaching the Shockley-Queisser theoretical limit. In metal halide perovskite solar cells, the achievable…
Here, we report an experimental demonstration of perovskite solar cells dominated by bimolecular recombination and critically analyse their performance against radiative limits. To this end, we first establish a set of quantitative…
Power-conversion efficiency is a critical factor for the wider adoption of solar-cell modules. Thin-film solar cells are cheap and easy to manufacture, but their efficiencies are low compared to crystalline-silicon solar cells and need to…
A simple thermodynamic argument related to a (weakly absorbing) finite dielectric slab illuminated by sunlight- originally suggested by Yablonovich- leads to the conclusion that the absorption in a dielectric can at best be increased by a…
We report on the first results of a sensitive search for scalar coupling of photons to a light neutral boson in the mass range of approximately 1.0 milli-electron volts and coupling strength greater than 10$^-6$ GeV$^-1$ using optical…
The thermodynamic limit for the efficiency of solar cells is predominantly defined by the energy bandgap of the used semiconductor. In case of organic solar cells both energetics and kinetics of three different species play role: excitons,…
Absorption and scattering of electromagnetic waves by dielectric media are of fundamental importance in many branches of physics. In this Letter we analytically derived the ultimate upper limits for the absorbed and scattered powers by any…