Heterojunction photovoltaic cell configurations for maximum conversion efficiency

Author

Liakos, John K. ; Landsberg, Peter T.

Author_Institution

Fac. of Math. Studies, Southampton Univ., UK

Volume

2

fYear

1994

fDate

5-9 Dec 1994

Firstpage

1926

Abstract

The sequence of semiconductors (1,2) say encountered by light incident on a solar cell can be such that the first energy gap is the larger (configuration A, E_g1<E_g2) or the smaller (configuration B, E_g1<E_g2). We show here via contours of constant efficiency in an (E_g1, E_g2)-plot that, subject to certain simplifications, reasonable conditions exist for the maximum efficiency to occur for either configuration. That there is an important class of cases favoring configuration B is our main contribution in this paper. The homojunction efficiencies on the diagonal of these plots lie always below the heterojunction maximum

Keywords

energy gap; p-n heterojunctions; semiconductor device models; solar cells; constant efficiency contours; energy gap; heterojunction photovoltaic cell configurations; homojunction efficiencies; maximum conversion efficiency; solar cell; Current density; Equations; Heterojunctions; Impact ionization; Optical pumping; Optical saturation; Photovoltaic cells; Solar energy; Sun; Temperature;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Energy Conversion, 1994., Conference Record of the Twenty Fourth. IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference - 1994, 1994 IEEE First World Conference on

Conference_Location

Waikoloa, HI

Print_ISBN

0-7803-1460-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/WCPEC.1994.520745

Filename

520745