DocumentCode
3343359
Title
A puzzling solar cell structure: An exercise to get insight on intermediate band solar cells
Author
Marti, A. ; Antolin, E. ; Garcia-Linares, Pablo ; Ramiro, I. ; Lopez, Enrique ; Tobias, I. ; Luque, Antonio
Author_Institution
Inst. de Energia Solar, Univ. Politec. de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
fYear
2013
fDate
16-21 June 2013
Firstpage
1069
Lastpage
1073
Abstract
We introduce one trivial but puzzling solar cell structure. It consists of a high bandgap pn junction (top cell) grown on a substrate of lower bandgap. Let us assume, for example, that the bandgap of the top cell is 1.85 eV (Al0.3Ga0.7As) and the bandgap of the substrate is 1.42 eV (GaAs). Is the open-circuit of the top cell limited to 1.42 V or to 1.85 V? If the answer is “1.85 V” we could then make the mind experiment in which we illuminate the cell with 1.5 eV photons (notice these photons would only be absorbed in the substrate). If we admit that these photons can generate photocurrent, then because we have also admitted that the voltage is limited to 1.85 V, it might be possible that the electron-hole pairs generated by these photons were extracted at 1.6 V for example. However, if we do so, the principles of thermodynamics could be violated because we would be extracting more energy from the photon than the energy it initially had. How can we then solve this puzzle?
Keywords
III-V semiconductors; solar cells; Al0.3Ga0.7As; GaAs; bandgap pn junction; electron volt energy 1.42 eV; electron volt energy 1.5 eV; electron volt energy 1.85 eV; electron-hole pairs; intermediate band solar cells; open-circuit; photocurrent; photons; puzzling solar cell structure; thermodynamics principles; voltage 1.6 V; Current-voltage characteristics; Mathematical model; Photoconductivity; Photonic band gap; Photonics; Photovoltaic cells; Substrates; intermediate band solar cell; quantum efficiency model; solar cell modeling;
fLanguage
English
Publisher
ieee
Conference_Titel
Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC), 2013 IEEE 39th
Conference_Location
Tampa, FL
Type
conf
DOI
10.1109/PVSC.2013.6744325
Filename
6744325
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