Demonstration of a hot-carrier photovoltaic cell

Dimmock, James A.; Day, S.; Kauer, Matthias; Smith, Katherine L.; Heffernan, J.

doi:10.1002/pip.2444

Cited by 76 publications

(75 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…The cell operation is usually described from the point of view of the kinetic transport theory by consideration of quasi-equilibrium thermal emission of the hot carriers from the absorber material into the energy filtering structure. This emission may be described in simple cases by the thermionic emission theory [3,[6][7][8][9][10], being a kinetic transport theory. Kinetic theories are in principle wellsuited to describe charge transport in the solar cell; however, the description is rather complex in various specific cases.…”

Section: Hot Carrier Solar Cell As Thermoelectric Devicementioning

confidence: 99%

Hot carrier solar cell as thermoelectric device

Konovalov

Емельянов

2017

Energy Science & Engineering

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Improvement of solar cell efficiency beyond the Shockley-Queisser limit requires introduction of new physical concepts. One such concept is hot carrier solar cell, proposed more than three decades ago and still not impressively demonstrated in experiment. Here we show that hot carrier solar cell may be considered as thermoelectric device based on Seebeck effect. This enables one to describe the operation of hot carrier solar cell in a simple way. We fabricated a prototype of the hot carrier solar cell showing open circuit voltage at room temperature larger than the band gap in the absorber material. Extrapolation of open circuit voltage to absolute zero temperature results in barrier height depending on light intensity, interpreted by splitting of quasi-Fermi levels between the regions of different carrier temperature. Properties of the prototype solar cell may be described by kinetic transport theory as well as from the point of view of the thermoelectric theory. 114

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Section: Hot Carrier Solar Cell As Thermoelectric Devicementioning

confidence: 99%

Hot carrier solar cell as thermoelectric device

Konovalov

Емельянов

2017

Energy Science & Engineering

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“…Previously we had theoretically justified our structural design and optoelectronically characterized the final device to show characteristics of hot carrier transfer [8]; in this paper we will further explore both fundamental and device properties, demonstrating improved IV characteristics and exploring the carrier transport and structural properties through optical measurements.…”

Section: Conceptmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…The p-i-n structure was grown to study how an improved extraction for holes over the original n-i-n hot carrier structure [8] would increase the photocurrent and voltage of the cell. The original structure was a n-i-n structure, this had the benefit of the sole driving force of the cell being the difference in the temperature and density of the electron populations of the absorber and collector, allowing us to unambiguously probe the hot carrier contribution to the device characteristics, but the drawback that this lowered efficiency.…”

Section: P-i-n Structurementioning

confidence: 99%

“…In previous work [8], we have shown a hot carrier photovoltaic cell which approached this problem through fast extraction, rather than slowed carrier thermalisation. This work showed a hot carrier photo-current, which was dependent on the wavelength of light used to illuminate the cell, demonstrating the extraction of carriers prior to their thermalisation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Optoelectronic characterization of carrier extraction in a hot carrier photovoltaic cell structure

Dimmock

Kauer

Smith

et al. 2016

J. Opt.

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A hot carrier photovoltaic cell requires extraction of electrons on a timescale faster than they can lose energy to the lattice. We optically and optoelectronically characterize two resonant tunneling structures, showing their compatability with hot carrier photovoltaic operation, demonstrating structural and carrier extraction properties necessary for such a device. In particular we use time resolved and temperature dependent photoluminescence to determine extraction timescales and energy levels in the structures and demonstrate fast carrier extraction by tunneling. We also show that such devices are capable of extracting photo-generated electrons at high carrier densities, with an open circuit voltage in excess of 1V.

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“…[20]. As for the energy selective contacts, the most studied option is based on the exploitation of different variations of the resonant tunnelling using nanostructures [21]. Dimmock et al [22] have proposed and investigated a HCSC implemented on a metal-semiconductor junction.…”

Section: Brief Review Of the Status Of Empirical Research On Novel Comentioning

confidence: 99%

Limiting Efficiencies of Novel Solar Cell Concepts in Space

et al. 2017

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In this work we study the limiting efficiency in space environmental conditions of three novel solar cell concepts (hot carrier solar cells, multiple exciton generation solar cells and intermediate band solar cells) and how this limiting efficiency is impacted by the temperature and degradation due to radiation. Comparisons are made with state of the art triplejunction solar cells whose performance is taken as reference. In the last section of the work we briefly review the status related to the experimental achievements of these cells to date. NOVEL SOLAR CELL CONCEPTS OVERVIEWIn order to exceed the limiting efficiency of single gap solar cells, three novel solar cell approaches have been proposed: the hot carrier solar cell (HCSC), the multiple exciton generation solar cell (MEGSC) and the intermediate band solar cell (IBSC).In the HCSC (Fig. 1a) photons (hv) create electron-holepairs. However, the excited electrons and holes are not allowed to interact with the semiconductor lattice so that they do not cool down and, therefore, they do not lose their energy in thermalization processes with the semiconductor lattice. It is from this property that the HCSC heritages its efficiency advantage over single gap solar cells. The extraction of these hot electrons and holes from the solar cell demands, however, the use of special contacts (named energy selective contacts) in order to make possible that electrons cool down reversibly to the contact temperature at the time they increase their electro-chemical potential. In the multiple exciton generation solar cell (MEGSC, Fig. 1b) high energy photons (hv) create high energy excited electron-hole pairs (or excitons). This pairs do not ideally lose their energy through thermalization processes but, instead, create one or more additional electron-hole pairs (e1-h1; e2-h2, e3-h3) depending on how many times their energy exceeds the energy of the gap. The MEGSC, proposed by Nozik [4], is an evolution of the impact ionization solar cell (IISC) proposed by Werner, Brendel and Queisser [5]. The difference relies on the fact that, while the IISC was thought to be implemented in bulk semiconductors, the MEGSC is envisaged to be implemented using quantum dots. By using quantum dots, the probability of one photon creating more than one electron-hole pair is increased because the momentum conservation selection rule is not required.The intermediate band solar cell (IBSC) is based on the idea of implementing a semiconductor like material that, instead of exhibiting one single gap, it would exhibit two bandgaps (Fig. 1c). The two bandgaps appear when an "intermediate band" (IB) is created inside a conventional high bandgap semiconductor host. This IB allows the absorption of below bandgap energy photons that, in conventional solar cells are wasted. This absorption occurs through the successive promotion of electrons from the valence band (VB) to the IB and from the IB to the conduction band (CB). Thanks to the formation of the additional bandgap, the IBSC is capable of perform...

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Demonstration of a hot-carrier photovoltaic cell

Cited by 76 publications

References 34 publications

Hot carrier solar cell as thermoelectric device

Hot carrier solar cell as thermoelectric device

Optoelectronic characterization of carrier extraction in a hot carrier photovoltaic cell structure

Limiting Efficiencies of Novel Solar Cell Concepts in Space

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