• DocumentCode
    1866097
  • Title

    A new analysis for solar cell efficiency: Rigorous electromagnetic approach

  • Author

    Niv, A. ; Gharghi, M. ; Gladden, C. ; Abrams, Z.R. ; Zhang, X.

  • Author_Institution
    NSF Nanoscale Sci. & Eng. Center (NSEC), Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
  • fYear
    2011
  • fDate
    19-24 June 2011
  • Abstract
    Current methods for the evaluation of solar cell efficiency cannot be applied to extremely thin cells where phenomena from the realm of near-field optics prevail. We use the fluctuation dissipation theorem to calculate the rate of power removal from a semiconductor/metal system. This establishes for the first time, to our knowledge, a rigorous electromagnetic basis for solar cell efficiency analysis. We demonstrate our approach by calculating the efficiency of a Si solar cell with an Au back reflector.
  • Keywords
    elemental semiconductors; gold; silicon; solar cells; Au; Si; fluctuation dissipation theorem; gold back reflector; near-field optics; power removal rate; rigorous electromagnetic approach; semiconductor-metal system; silicon solar cell efficiency; Absorption; Electric potential; Electromagnetics; Gold; Photovoltaic cells; Plasmons; Silicon;
  • fLanguage
    English
  • Publisher
    ieee
  • Conference_Titel
    Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC), 2011 37th IEEE
  • Conference_Location
    Seattle, WA
  • ISSN
    0160-8371
  • Print_ISBN
    978-1-4244-9966-3
  • Type

    conf

  • DOI
    10.1109/PVSC.2011.6186366
  • Filename
    6186366