Tunneling Processes in a Triangular Multibarrier Semiconductor Heterostructure

Leite, T. N.

doi:10.1109/ted.2010.2100399

Cited by 5 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 11 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…[40] Thermal relaxation through the continuum of states of the bulk conduction band is typically of order 1 picosecond, making electron escape the dominant process. [41,42] The second intentional PES is the conduction band gradient (PCB) of the InAlBiAs layer, which guides the electron to the recombination zone where it can recombine with the hole to emit a high-energy photon (process 5). Again, a PCB energy sacrifice, implemented by the conduction band gradient, prevents thermal escape of the electrons from the recombination zone.…”

Section: A New Paradigm For Upconversion Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Novel nanostructures for efficient photon upconversion and high-efficiency photovoltaics

Sellers

Zhang

Chen

et al. 2016

Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Upconversion of low-energy photons theoretically allows the creation of singlejunction solar cells with efficiency far above the Shockley-Queisser (SQ) limit.However, the net efficiency gains that can be realized depend critically on details of the upconversion process employed. We define three important metrics of the performance of an upconversion material: upconversion quantum efficiency (UQE), photon energy sacrifice (PES), and absorption bandwidth (AB). We analyze the performance of existing upconversion materials relative to both these metrics and existing computational models of a single-junction photovoltaic (PV) cell backed by an upconverter. Guided by the results of this analysis, we develop a design for new solid state upconversion nanostructures that suppresses the dominant energy loss pathways and can enable substantial improvements in overall solar energy harvesting. We describe and model the performance of a specific realization of this design that uses an InAs quantum dot (QD) and a graded InAlBiAs layer to suppress both radiative and nonradiative loss pathways. We show that this design can be tailored to maximize upconversion efficiency and can enable a practical upconversion-backed PV system to exceed the SQ limit.

show abstract

Section: A New Paradigm For Upconversion Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%