Non-ideal energy selective contacts and their effect on the performance of a hot carrier solar cell with an indium nitride absorber

Feng, Yuqing; Aliberti, P.; Puthen-Veettil, Binesh; Patterson, Robert; Shrestha, Santosh; Green, Martin A.; Conibeer, Gavin

doi:10.1063/1.3680594

Cited by 50 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…In addition, a carrier equilibration time τ eq in the order of τ th /1,000 and an energy-selection width w esc of the ESCs narrower than 0.1 eV are needed. Aliberti et al [39,40] and Feng et al [41] have improved the present model used in Sect. 8.3 to bridge the PC model and IA model, i.e., to involve the effect of impact ionization and Auger recombination quantitatively, assuming immediate equilibration, and applied to InN absorbers.…”

Section: Summary Of the Requisites For High Conversion Efficiencymentioning

confidence: 88%

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Requisites for Highly Efficient Hot-Carrier Solar Cells

Takeda

2013

Lecture Notes in Nanoscale Science and Technology

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We have constructed new models based on detailed balance of particle and energy fluxes to clarify the operating principle of hot-carrier solar cells (HC-SCs) and find the requisites for high conversion efficiency. Energy dissipation due to thermalization of photogenerated carriers can be significantly reduced, even though the thermalization time is not sufficiently long. Instead, the energy dissipation related to entropy generation associated with hot-carrier extraction is remarkable. The thermalization time must be several nanoseconds to exceed the Shockley-Queisser limit under the 1 sun solar irradiation and over 10 ns to compete against triple-junction solar cells at 1,000 sun. The other requisites unique to hot-carrier extraction are a short carrier equilibration time being around one-thousandth of the thermalization time, and an energy-selection width of energy-selective contacts (ESCs) for mono-energetic carrier extraction, which is needed to match the quasi-Fermi levels in the hot absorber and in the cold electrodes, being narrower than 0.1 eV. It seems extremely challenging to fulfill all the requisites, although investigations for material development as well as new concepts for post conventional HC-SCs are underway. IntroductionIn a conventional solar cell, a photon whose energy is higher than the bandgap of the light-absorbing material used in the cell is absorbed to generate a carrier with an energy equal to the photon energy. However, carrier energies in excess of the bandgap of the absorber immediately dissipate by emitting phonons whose temperature equals the room temperature, namely, thermalization of carriers occurs within several picoseconds in most cases. Therefore, the excess carrier energies cannot be

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Section: Summary Of the Requisites For High Conversion Efficiencymentioning

confidence: 88%

“…This is exactly the reason why HC-SCs are categorized in the row "particle number conserved" in Fig. 8.1, although a slight correction for the PC model would be required depending on operating conditions [39][40][41].…”

Section: Quantitative Answer To Faq 4: Carrier Thermalizationmentioning

confidence: 97%

Requisites for Highly Efficient Hot-Carrier Solar Cells

Takeda

2013

Lecture Notes in Nanoscale Science and Technology

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“…This limit may, in practice, be difficult to approach due to such issues as Auger Recombination [8] and the adequate selection of energies [9] for the purposes of entropy reduction. Yet if creation of this device via thin film deposition is possible, it could serve as an inexpensive and effective add-on to higher electronic bandgap materials to create a highly efficient cell at only a moderate cost [10], as compared with the prohibitively expensive modern triple junction cells.…”

Section: Figure 7bmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hot carrier solar cells from group III-V quantum well structures

Smyth

Wadekar

Chang

et al. 2013

2013 IEEE 39th Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC)

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To circumvent Shockley-Queisser Limit whilst utilizing thin film deposition, we intend construction of a hot carrier solar cell (HCSC). This device would challenge a fundamental assumption of Shockley-Queisser: that all energy of incoming photons in excess of the acceptance threshold of the cell material is lost as heat. If "excess" energy charge carriers are tapped before they thermalize with the matrix, theoretical cell efficiency (66%) under one sun is twice that of a single-junction silicon cell. In this pursuit, two principal tasks await: actual retardation of carrier thermalization by preventing the decay of accompanying optical phonons, and collection of the carriers via devices known as "Energy Selective Contacts" (ESCs), which withdraw only carriers possessing a narrow range of energies to prevent entropic losses. We propose construction of a Hot Carrier Solar Cell utilizing elemental group III Nitrides for ESC and absorber. Indium Nitride, with its large phononic band gap and small electronic band gap, can provide a suitable absorber, whereas alloys of In(x)Ga(1-x)N can form complementary and lattice-matched ESCs.Index Terms -hot carrier effect; phonon bottleneck; quantum confinement.

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“…[2][3][4][5][6] However, InN has received little attention as compared to GaN and AlN primarily due to the inherent difficulty of its preparation in stoichiometric form. 7 In addition, high grade single crystal InN is difficult to grow due to its low dissociation temperature 6 and less suitable substrates.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative study on structural and optical properties of nitrogen rich InN on Si(110) and 6H-SiC

Amirhoseiny

Hassan

2013

Surface Engineering

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Nitrogen rich indium nitride (InN) thin films were deposited on anisotropic silicon [Si(110)] and 6Hsilicon carbide (6H-SiC) substrates by reactive radio frequency sputtering technique. The surface quality of the InN films on Si(110) substrate was compared to that deposited on 6H-SiC substrate. Both deposited films showed wurtzite nanocrystalline InN films with a (101) preferred growth orientation. One Raman active optical phonon of E 2 (high) and two Raman and infrared active modes of A 1 (LO) and E 1 (TO) of the wurtzite InN thin film were clearly observed for both samples. Morphological characteristics showed higher surface quality for InN grown on Si(110) compared to that on SiC substrate. Owing to the large lattice mismatch, it was found that the crystallinity of InN films grown on 6H-SiC substrate degraded as compared to that grown on Si(110).

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Non-ideal energy selective contacts and their effect on the performance of a hot carrier solar cell with an indium nitride absorber

Cited by 50 publications

References 17 publications

Requisites for Highly Efficient Hot-Carrier Solar Cells

Requisites for Highly Efficient Hot-Carrier Solar Cells

Hot carrier solar cells from group III-V quantum well structures

Comparative study on structural and optical properties of nitrogen rich InN on Si(110) and 6H-SiC

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