Related papers: Voltage preservation in Intermediate Band Solar Ce…
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…
Recombination through quantum dots (QDs) is a major factor that limits efficiency of QD intermediate-band (IB) solar cells. Our proposal for a new IB solar cell based on type-II GaSb QDs located outside the depletion region of a GaAs…
Using the non equilibrium Green functions formalism we propose a study of the electronic excitation and collection in nano-structured intermediate-band solar cell. We demonstrate that a thin tunnel barrier between the nano-objects and the…
Edge shunts are among the main factors causing reduction in solar cell open circuit voltage that is why their isolation is one of the main steps in solar cell manufacturing. Many techniques have been employed to achieve this goal, e.g.…
Tandem solar cells can better harness the energy of the solar spectrum. Chalcopyrite solar cells have drawn attention, being the only highly efficient devices with bandgap around 1.0 eV, suitable for bottom cells. In the quest for better…
We present a theoretical analysis of intraband optical transitions from the intermediate pseudo-band of confined states to the conduction band in a finite, inhomogeneous stack of self-assembled semiconductor quantum dots. The chain is…
Electric coupling between subcells of a monolithically grown multijunction solar cell in short circuit allows their simultaneous and independent characterization by means of photo- and electroreflectance. The photovoltage generated by…
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…
The radiative open circuit voltage loss in a solar cell occurs because the absorptance spectrum near the band gap shows gradual increase rather than sharp step function like transition. This broadening effect has been attributed to band gap…
Tandem solar cells are at the forefront of extending the efficiency limits of solar cell technology. Among two-terminal tandems, current-matched (CM) tandem solar cells are of particular interest, owing to their relative ease of…
We argue that alternating-layer structures of lattice mismatched or misaligned (twisted) atomically-thin layers should be expected to be more efficient absorbers of the broad-spectrum of solar radiation than the bulk material of each…
The endeavor of the scientific community to maximize the possibility to harvest Sun irradiation for energy production is mainly devoted to the improvement of the power conversion efficiency of devices and to the extension of the spectral…
Maximizing the power conversion efficiency of solar cells plays a crucial role in upscaling solar energy production. Combining two or more solar cells with different bandgaps into a multi-junction tandem solar cells lowers thermalization…
Two-step photon upconversion solar cells (TPU-SCs) belong to the class of solar cells that in principle can exceed the Shockley--Queisser limit for single-junction solar cells. A TPU-SC basically consists of a wide-gap and a narrow-gap…
Recombination of photogenerated charge carriers in polymer bulk heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells reduces the short circuit current (Jsc) and the fill factor (FF). Identifying the mechanism of recombination is, therefore, fundamentally…
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…
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…
Selenium is experiencing renewed interest as a promising candidate for the wide bandgap photoabsorber in tandem solar cells. However, despite the potential of selenium-based tandems to surpass the theoretical efficiency limit of single…
Electrical transients enabled by optical excitation and electric detection provide a distinctive opportunity to study the charge transport, recombination and even the hysteresis of a solar cell in a much wider time window ranging from…
We propose a solar thermal energy conversion system consisting of a solar absorber, a thermoradiative cell or negative illumination photodiode, and a photovoltaic cell. Because it is a heat engine, this system can also be paired with…