Related papers: Identifying optimal photovoltaic technologies for …
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…
Hybridization of multi-junction concentrator photovoltaics with single-junction flat plate solar cells (CPV/PV) can deliver the highest power output per module area of any PV technology. Conversion efficiencies up to 34.2% have been…
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…
Photovoltaics (PV) are widely used to harvest solar energy, an important form of renewable energy. Photovoltaic arrays consist of multiple solar panels constructed from solar cells. Solar cells in the field are vulnerable to various…
Thin films are preferred for high photocurrent conversion efficiency, but strong photon absorption at photon energies below the bandgap (near and shortwave infrared) typically requires thicker semiconductor layers. To address this tradeoff,…
Current methods for evaluating solar cell efficiencies cannot be applied to extremely thin cells where phenomena from the realm of near field optics prevail. We overcome this problem by offering a rigorous electromagnetic calculation of…
Compton telescope is a promising technology to achieve very high sensitivity in the soft gamma-ray band (0.1-10 MeV) by utilizing Compton kinematics. Compton kinematics also enables polarization measurement which will open new windows to…
We present direct measurements of depth-resolved band gap variations of CuIn(1-x)Ga(x)Se2 thin-film solar cell absorbers. A new measurement technique combining parallel measurements of local thin-film interference and spectral…
The incoherence of sunlight has long been suspected to have an impact on solar cell energy conversion efficiency, although the extent of this is unclear. Existing computational methods used to optimize solar cell efficiency under incoherent…
Concentrator Photovoltaic (CPV) systems use high efficiency multi-junction solar cells with efficiencies >40%, but the module efficiency is often much lower. The increased complexity of a CPV module, with optics, receiver and the tracker…
Thermophotovotaics convert thermal radiation from local heat sources to electricity. A new breakthrough in creating highly efficient thin-film solar cells can potentially enable thermophotovoltaic systems with unprecedented high efficiency.…
A high theoretical efficiency of 47.2% was achieved by a novel combination of In0.51Ga0.49P, GaAs, In0.24Ga0.76As and In0.19Ga0.81Sb subcell layers in a simulated quadruple junction solar cell under 1 sun concentration. The electronic…
CdTe is one of the leading materials for low cost, high efficiency thin-film solar cells, because it has a high absorption coefficient and a nearly ideal band gap of 1.48 eV for solar cell according to the Shockley-Queisser limit. However,…
Energetic disorder has been known for decades to limit the performance of structurally disordered semiconductors such as amorphous silicon and organic semiconductors. However, in the past years, high performance organic solar cells have…
Although most prior research on the dew-harvesting technology has focused on nocturnal operations, achieving round-the-clock freshwater harvesting remains crucial. However, daytime dew-harvesting faces two key challenges as compared to its…
We report the first empirical efficiency measurement of germanium-based thermophotovoltaic devices under high-temperature, high-irradiance conditions using a high view-factor calorimetric setup. Two TPV cell architectures were fabricated on…
The optical properties of nanofluids are peculiar and interesting for a variety of applications. Among them, the high light extinction coefficient of nanofluids can be useful in linear parabolic concentrating solar systems, while their…
We demonstrate the combination of a hemispherical solid immersion lens with a micro-photoluminescence setup. Two advantages introduced by the SIL, an improved resolution of 0.4 times the wavelength in vacuum and a 5 times enhancement of the…
Si-based photodetectors satisfy the criteria of low-cost and environmental-friendly, and can enable the development of on-chip complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS)-compatible photonic systems. However, extending their…
The scanning mid-IR-laser microscopy was previously demonstrated as an effective tool for characterization of different semiconductor crystals. Now the technique has been successfully applied for the investigation of CZ SixGe1-x -- a…