Related papers: How do sub-bandgap reflectors affect the performan…
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…
High efficiencies of >30% are predicted for series-connected tandem solar cells when current-matching is achieved between the wide-bandgap top cell and silicon bottom cell. Sub-cells are typically optimised for current-matching based on the…
Semiconductor emitter can possibly achieve sharp cutoff wavelength due to its intrinsic bandgap absorption and almost zero sub-bandgap emission without doping. A germanium wafer based selective emitter with front-side antireflection and…
Distributed bragg reflectors (DBRs) consisting of ZnO and amorphous silicon (a-Si) were prepared by magnetron sputtering method for selective light trapping. The quarter-wavelength ZnO/a-Si DBRs with only 6 periods exhibit a peak…
The exponential growth of global capacity along with a reduction in manufacturing costs in the last two decades has caused photovoltaic (PV) energy technology to reach a high maturity level. As a consequence, currently, researchers from all…
Energy states below the bandgap of a semiconductor, such as trap states or charge transfer states in organic donor acceptor blends, can contribute to light absorption. Due to their low number density or ultrasmall absorption cross-section,…
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…
Micro-structured anti reflective coatings (ARC) have been identified as a promising solution to reduce optical losses in Concentrator Photovoltaics modules (CPV). We fabricated and tested in field a CPV modules made of 4 sub-modules with a…
Solar energy promises a viable solution to meet the ever-increasing power demand by providing a clean, renewable energy alternative to fossil fuels. For solar thermophotovoltaics (STPV), high-temperature absorbers and emitters with strong…
An ideal solar thermal absorber has a sharp transition between high and low absorptance at the wavelength where the blackbody emissive power begins to exceed the solar irradiance. However, most real selective absorbers have a fairly broad…
A novel algorithm is proposed to downscale microwave brightness temperatures ($\mathrm{T_B}$), at scales of 10-40 km such as those from the Soil Moisture Active Passive mission to a resolution meaningful for hydrological and agricultural…
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…
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…
Compared to traditional nonlinear optical crystals, like BaB$_2$O$_4$, KTiOPO$_4$ or LiNbO$_3$, semiconductor integrated sources of photon pairs may operate at pump wavelengths much closer to the bandgap of the materials. This is also the…
Intermediate Band Solar Cell is an advanced concept for solar energy conversion in which two low-energy photons can promote an electron to the conduction band through a so-called intermediate band. To limit recombination and preserve the…
Anti-reflective coatings (ARCs) are used on the vast majority of solar photovoltaic (PV) modules to increase power production. However, ARC longevity can vary from less than 1 year to over 15 years depending on coating quality and…
Because of its low-cost, silicon is the standard material for photovoltaic conversion. Yet, its band-edge absorption spectrum is narrower than the spectrum of the solar radiation, which reduces its conversion efficiency. In this paper, it…
Strong interference in ultrathin film semiconductor absorbers on metallic back reflectors has been shown to enhance the light harvesting efficiency of solar cell materials. However, metallic back reflectors are not suitable for tandem cell…
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…
Photovoltaic (PV) modules are recently employed in photovoltaic visible light communication (PVLC) for simultaneous energy harvesting and visible light communication. A PV-based receiver features large signal output, easy optical alignment,…