Related papers: Thermodynamic limit on the open circuit voltage of…
The maximal concentration limit of solar radiation for photovoltaic applications is assumed to be constant, at Cmax\approx46,000 suns. This limit is easily found via a geometrical application of the 2nd law of thermodynamics to a radiation…
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…
An isolated single-junction solar cell's temperature in outer space depends only on its radiation exchange with its environment. We consider a cell with zero emissivity below its bandgap and unity above it -- an idealization so far…
The paper considers a model for the solar cell as a mechanical open-cycle thermodynamic engine where the chemical potential is produced in an isochoric process corresponding to the thermalization of electron-hole pairs. Expansion of the…
Variability of the energy output throughout the day/night poses a major hurdle to the widespread adoption of photovoltaic systems. An integrated photovoltaic (PV) and electrochemical (EC)-storage system offers a solution, but the…
This paper shows a fundamental thermodynamic similarity between thermoelectric and photovoltaic energy converters which, at open circuit, can be represented as isochoric engines generating a finite chemical potential which appears as…
A thermophotovoltaic (TPV) energy converter harnesses thermal photons emitted by a hot body and converts them to electricity. When the radiative heat exchange between the emitter and PV cell is spectrally monochromatic, the TPV system can…
Hot-carrier solar cells are envisioned to utilize energy filtering to extract power from photogenerated electron-hole pairs before they thermalize with the lattice, and thus potentially offer higher power conversion efficiency compared to…
Thermophotovoltaic devices are energy-conversion systems generating an electric current from the thermal photons radiated by a hot body. In far field, the efficiency of these systems is limited by the thermodynamic Schockley-Queisser limit…
Improving the conversion efficiency of solar energy to electricity is most important to mankind. For single-junction photovoltaic solar-cells, the Shockley-Queisser thermodynamic efficiency limit is extensively due to the heat dissipation,…
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…
The case of a non-biased (light excited) p-n photo-voltaic (PV) cell working in a closed circuit with a resistive load is investigated by means of irreversible thermodynamics in the linear range. To our knowledge, this is the first time…
The hotness of the sun and the coldness of the outer space are inexhaustible thermodynamic resources for human beings. From a thermodynamic point of view, any energy conversion systems that receive energy from the sun and/or dissipate…
We introduce a limit for the strength of coupling light into the modes of solar cells. This limit depends on both a cell's thickness and its modal properties. For a cell with refractive index n and thickness d, we obtain a maximal coupling…
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 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,…
The open circuit voltage Voc and the corresponding charge carrier density were measured in dependence of temperature and illumination intensity by current-voltage and charge extraction measurements for P3HT:PCBM and P3HT:bisPCBM solar…
Maximum efficiency of ideal single-junction photovoltaic (PV) cells is limited to 33% (for one sun illumination) by intrinsic losses such as band edge thermalization, radiative recombination, and inability to absorb below-bandgap photons.…
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…
Single-junction photovoltaic cells are considered to be efficient solar energy converters, but even ideal cells cannot exceed the their fundamental thermodynamic efficiency limit, first analysed by Shockley and Queisser (SQ). For moderated…