Theoretical efficiency of 3rd generation solar cells: Comparison between carrier multiplication and down-conversion

Abrams, Ze’ev R.; Gharghi, Majid; Niv, Avi; Gladden, Christopher; Zhang, Xiang

doi:10.1016/j.solmat.2011.12.019

Cited by 28 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…The downconversion process occurs by energy transfer between luminescent centers, either lanthanide ions with a wide range of energy levels or organic molecules with low-energy triplet states 31,32 . If the IR photons generated are all absorbed by the solar cell material, the result can be a huge increase in the current output [10][11][12][13]33 . This concept does not impose requirements on the contact surface between the conversion layer and the solar cell, so it can relatively easily be integrated into existing solar cell technologies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multi-photon quantum cutting in Gd2O2S:Tm3+ to enhance the photo-response of solar cells

Martín-Rodríguez

Zhang

et al. 2015

Light Sci Appl

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Conventional photoluminescence (PL) yields at most one emitted photon for each absorption event. Downconversion (or quantum cutting) materials can yield more than one photon by virtue of energy transfer processes between luminescent centers. In this work, we introduce Gd 2 O 2 S:Tm 31 as a multi-photon quantum cutter. It can convert near-infrared, visible, or ultraviolet photons into two, three, or four infrared photons of ,1800 nm, respectively. The cross-relaxation steps between Tm 31 ions that lead to quantum cutting are identified from (time-resolved) PL as a function of the Tm 31 concentration in the crystal. A model is presented that reproduces the way in which the Tm 31 concentration affects both the relative intensities of the various emission lines and the excited state dynamics and providing insight in the quantum cutting efficiency. Finally, we discuss the potential application of Gd 2 O 2 S:Tm 31 for spectral conversion to improve the efficiency of next-generation photovoltaics. Keywords: downconversion; infrared emission; quantum cutting; solar cells; spectral conversions INTRODUCTION Over the last decade, advanced luminescent materials exhibiting downconversion, also known as quantum cutting or quantum splitting, have been developed 1,2 . In this process, a high-energy photon is converted into two or more lower-energy photons, with a quantum efficiency of potentially well over 100% 3 . If the downconverted photons are in the visible range, this concept is of interest for color conversion layers in conventional lighting applications 1,2,4-6 . New exciting possibilities of downconversion to infrared (IR) photons lie in next-generation photovoltaics, aiming at minimizing the spectral mismatch losses in solar cells [7][8][9][10][11] .Spectral mismatch is the result of the broad width of the spectrum emitted by the sun. Semiconductor absorber materials absorb only photons with an energy hn higher than the band gap E g 7 . To absorb many photons and produce a large electrical current, absorber materials must therefore have a small bandgap. However, because excited charge carriers rapidly thermalize to the edges of a semiconductor's conduction and valence bands, a high voltage output requires an absorber with a large band gap. Hence, materials with low transmission losses (leading to a large current) have high thermalization losses (leading to a low voltage) and vice versa 12,13 . These spectral mismatch losses constitute the major factor defining the relatively low ShockleyQueisser limit 14 , the maximum light-to-electricity conversion efficiency of 33% in a single-junction solar cell, obtained for a band gap of approximately 1.1 eV (1100 nm) 13 .Efficiencies higher than 33% can be reached with multi-junction solar cells, where a stack of multiple absorber materials are each optimized to efficiently convert different parts of the solar spectrum to

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multi-photon quantum cutting in Gd2O2S:Tm3+ to enhance the photo-response of solar cells

Martín-Rodríguez

Zhang

et al. 2015

Light Sci Appl

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“…These years, many institutions and scholars have dedicated great efforts to research the technologies about solar cells [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31], rechargeable batteries [32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42] and MPPT techniques [2,[43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58]. Besides, there are also several other methods in consideration, such as to extract energy from wind shear [59][60][61][62][63] and store e...…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reviews of methods to extract and store energy for solar-powered aircraft

Gao

Hou

Guo

et al. 2015

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

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“…The most efficient PV cells in commercial use today are made from monocrystalline silicon and typically reach a conversion efficiency of about 23%. Unlike the past scientific efforts focused on increasing the number of photons absorbed (absorbed sunlight) by a PV cell, now the key of increasing the PV cell efficiency is not absorbing more photons but emitting more photons, as in [1], [2], and [3]. Thus for a PV cell fabricates from gallium-arsenide the efficiency can reach a record conversion of 28.4%.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

New approach of PV cell efficiency

Andrei

Nicolaescu

Radulescu

et al. 2013

2013 12th International Conference on Environment and Electrical Engineering

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Basically the overall efficiency of the solar cell refers to the sunlight-to-electricity conversion process. On the other hand, the solar cell is better modeled as a current source since for the largest loads the current drawn is independent of load. In this respect the paper defines solar cell efficiency related only to the electrical parameters, as a ratio between the output power and the power generated by current source. Numerical algorithm is implemented in order to obtain the electrical parameters and to calculate the efficiency of the solar cell for different environmental conditions. Also the solar cell sensitivity of efficiency is calculated when the temperature and irradiance levels are changed separately and/or simultaneously. The examples presented prove the correctness and the accuracy of the proposed method.

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Theoretical efficiency of 3rd generation solar cells: Comparison between carrier multiplication and down-conversion

Cited by 28 publications

References 42 publications

Multi-photon quantum cutting in Gd2O2S:Tm3+ to enhance the photo-response of solar cells

Multi-photon quantum cutting in Gd2O2S:Tm3+ to enhance the photo-response of solar cells

Reviews of methods to extract and store energy for solar-powered aircraft

New approach of PV cell efficiency

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