Related papers: Tiling large areas with luminescent solar concentr…
Thin crystalline silicon solar photovoltaics holds great potential for reducing the module price by material saving and increasing the efficiency by reduced bulk recombination loss. However, the module efficiency decreases rather…
We propose a frequency selective light trapping scheme that enables the creation of more visually-transparent and yet simultaneously more efficient semitransparent solar cells. A nanoparticle scattering layer and photonic stack back…
Solar modules are currently characterized at standard test conditions (STC), defined at 1000W/m2 and 25 {\deg}C. However, solar modules in actual outdoor operating conditions typically operate at lower illumination and higher temperature…
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…
Thin-film solar cells that are considered as the second generation of solar cells are known for their low cost and acceptable efficiency. In this technology, semiconductor layers with a thickness of micrometer are deposited on thick enough…
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 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…
Luminescent coupling is a characteristic of multi-junction solar cells which has often been neglected in models of their performance. The effect describes the absorption of light emitted from a higher band gap semiconductor by a lower band…
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…
We study the radiative decay, or fluorescence, of excitons in organic solar cells as a function of its geometrical parameters. Contrary to their non-radiative counterpart, fluorescence losses strongly depend on the environment. By properly…
Owing to their ability to concentrate light on nanometer scales, plasmonic surface structures are ideally suited for on-chip functionalization with nonlinear or gain materials. However, achieving a high effective quantum yield across a…
Light trapping photonic crystal (PhC) patterns on the surface of Si solar cells provides a novel opportunity to approach the theoretical efficiency limit of 32.3%, for light-to-electrical power conversion with a single junction cell. This…
Absorbed sunlight in a solar cell produces electrons and holes. But, at the open circuit condition, the carriers have no place to go. They build up in density and, ideally, they emit external fluorescence that exactly balances the incoming…
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.…
We propose a new concept for the design of high-efficiency photocells based on ultra-thin (submicron) semiconductor films of controlled thickness. Using a microscopic model of a thin dielectric layer interacting with incident…
Existing solar energy application systems use small fraction of full spectrum of solar energy. So attempts are made to show how full spectrum solar energy can be used for diffused and beamed form of incident solar energy. Luminescent Solar…
We present light yield and uniformity measurements of square and hexagonal tiles read out with silicon photomultipliers via a Y11 wavelength-shifting fiber or directly from the side or from the center at the top face. All tiles are 3~mm…
As the precision frontier of astrophysics advances towards the one millimagnitude level, flux calibration of photometric instrumentation remains an ongoing challenge. We present the results of a lab-bench assessment of the viability of…
Organic solar cells (OSCs) have received a special attention over the past years due to their solution processability, low cost, flexibility and capability of role-to-role production. The power conversion efficiency of these devices has…
In general, perovskite solar cells (PSC) with a sensitized or thin film architecture absorb light from a single illumination. This paper reported a PSC architecture with a semitransparent Au/ITO counter electrode, which allows light to pass…