Related papers: How do sub-bandgap reflectors affect the performan…
By independently engineering strain and composition, this work demonstrates and investigates direct band gap emission in the mid-infrared range from GeSn layers grown on silicon. We extend the room-temperature emission wavelength above ~4.0…
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,…
The total emissivity of the absorbing surfaces is a critical parameter in the calculation of the radiative thermal losses in solar thermal collectors. This is because the radiative heat losses have a significant economic impact on the final…
We theoretically demonstrate the fundamental limit in volume for given materials (e.g. Si, a-Si, CdTe) to fully absorb the solar radiation above bandgap, which we refer as solar superabsorption limit. We also point out the general…
We present plasmonic Bragg reflectors for increasing the extraordinary optical transmission through periodic arrays of subwavelength apertures in a metal film. The increase in transmission arises by preventing loss at the edges of the…
Thin-film solar cells reach high efficiencies and have a low carbon footprint in production. Tandem solar cells have the potential to significantly increase the efficiency of this technology, where the bottom-cell is generally composed of a…
In order to improve performance of photovoltaic/thermal (or PV/T for simplicity) collectors, this paper firstly validated a previous computational thermal model and then introduced an improved computational thermal model to investigate the…
Energy bandgap largely determines the optical and electronic properties of a semiconductor. Variable bandgap therefore makes versatile functionality possible in a single material. In layered material black phosphorus, the bandgap can be…
Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are the most promising technology for advancing current photovoltaic performance. However, the main challenge for their practical deployment and commercialization is their operational stability, affected by…
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…
Light trapping in sub-wavelength semiconductor nanowires (NWs) offers a promising approach to simultaneously reducing material consumption and enhancing photovoltaic performance. Nevertheless, the absorption efficiency of a NW, defined by…
Currently, Sb$_2$Se$_3$ thin films receive considerable research interest as a solar cell absorber material. When completed into a device stack, the major bottleneck for further device improvement is the open circuit voltage, which is the…
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…
Carrier Selective (CS) Silicon solar cells are increasingly explored as a low cost alternative to PN junction Silicon solar cells. While the recent trends on power conversion efficiency are encouraging, the temperature coefficient and hence…
Global and regional climate model projections are useful for gauging future patterns of climate variables, including solar radiation, but data from these models is often too coarse to assess local impacts. Within the context of solar…
Photonically integrated resonators are promising as a platform for enabling ultranarrow linewidth lasers in a compact form factor. Owing to their small size, these integrated resonators suffer from thermal noise that limits the frequency…
Due to the increasing proportion of distributed photovoltaic (PV) production in the generation mix, the knowledge of the PV generation capacity has become a key factor. In this work, we propose to compute the PV plant maximum power starting…
One of the key requirements for neutron scattering instruments is the Signal-to-Background ratio (SBR). This is as well a design driving requirement for many instruments at the European Spallation Source (ESS), which aspires to be the…
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…
Interplay of the angle dependent X-ray reflectivity and absorption with the photoelectron attenuation length in the photoelectron emission process determine the optimal X-ray incidence angle which maximizes the photoelectron signal.…