Title :
Effects of Internal Luminescence and Internal Optics on
and
of III-
Author :
Steiner, Myles A. ; Geisz, John F. ; Garcia, I. ; Friedman, Daniel J. ; Duda, A. ; Olavarria, Waldo J. ; Young, Michelle ; Kuciauskas, Darius ; Kurtz, Sarah R.
Author_Institution :
Nat. Renewable Energy Lab., Golden, CO, USA
Abstract :
For solar cells dominated by radiative recombination, the performance can be significantly enhanced by improving the internal optics. We demonstrate a detailed model for solar cells that calculates the external luminescent efficiency and discuss the relationship between the external and internal luminescence. The model accounts for wavelength-dependent optical properties in each layer, parasitic optical and electrical losses, multiple reflections within the cell, and assumes isotropic internal emission. For single-junction cells, the calculation leads to Voc, and for multijunction cells, the calculation leads to the Voc of each junction as well as the luminescent coupling constant. In both cases, the effects of the optics are most prominent in cells with high internal radiative efficiency. Exploiting good material quality and high luminescent coupling, we demonstrate a two-junction nonconcentrator cell with a conversion efficiency of (31.1 ± 0.9)% under the global spectrum.
Keywords :
III-V semiconductors; optical losses; photoluminescence; semiconductor device models; semiconductor junctions; short-circuit currents; solar cells; III-V solar cells; conversion efficiency; electrical losses; external luminescent efficiency; internal optics; internal radiative efficiency; isotropic internal emission; luminescent coupling constant; material quality; multijunction cells; multiple reflection; open-circuit voltage; parasitic optical losses; radiative recombination; short-circuit current; single-junction cells; two-junction nonconcentrator cell; wavelength-dependent optical properties; Couplings; Gallium arsenide; III-V semiconductor materials; Junctions; Luminescence; Photovoltaic cells; Radiative recombination; III–V solar cell; Luminescence; luminescent coupling; photon recycling; radiative recombination;
Journal_Title :
Photovoltaics, IEEE Journal of
DOI :
10.1109/JPHOTOV.2013.2278666