Overcoming the bandgap limitation on solar cell materials

Abstract

The thermodynamic efficiency of a single junction solar cell is bounded by the Shockley-Queisser detailed balance limit at ∼30% [W. Shockley and H. J. Queisser, J. Appl. Phys. 32, 510 (1961)]. This maximal efficiency is considered achievable using a semiconductor within a restricted bandgap range of 1.1-1.5 eV. This work upends this assumption by demonstrating that the optimal material bandgap can be shifted to lower energies by placing selective reflectors around the solar cell. This technique opens new possibilities for lower bandgap materials to achieve the thermodynamic limit and to be effective in high efficiency solar cells.

Organic‐Inorganic Hybrid Perovskite Single Crystals: Crystallization, Molecular Structures, and Bandgap Engineering

“…For photovoltaic applications, materials with a moderate bandgap in the range of 1.0–1.7 eV are required to achieve high optoelectronic properties and photovoltaic efficiencies ,. Therefore, the biggest advantage of organic‐inorganic halide perovskites is that their bandgaps can be tuned by changing the cations and the metals.…”

The effect of photonic bandgap materials on the Shockley-Queisser limit

“…A similar result was recently found for ideal selective reflectors. 33 The total current in the cell without NR recombination is given by Eq. (7) and can be re-written as…”

Enhanced Efficiency of MAPbI3 Perovskite Solar Cells with FAPbX3 Perovskite Quantum Dots

“…Developing high quality perovskite films is critical to improving perovskite solar cell efficiency. It is well known that high-performance solar cells originate from a low absorption bandgap (the optimal absorption band gap around a value of 1.1–1.5 eV) upon solar spectrum [7,8,9], low exciton binding energy [10,11], and long carrier diffusion length [12]. In addition, perovskite solar cells offer additional characteristics, like thin-film, flexibility, semitransparency, lightweight, and low-costs processing.…”