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Tailored emission to boost open-circuit voltage in solar cells

Anttu, Nicklas LU ; Kivisaari, Pyry LU and Chen, Yang LU (2019) In Journal of Physics Communications 3(5).
Abstract

Recently, a lot of research focus has been on how to make solar cells more efficient. One direction is to enhance the open-circuit voltage Voc by optimizing the emission of photons in the cell, where emission is a necessary loss process due to the reciprocity between absorption and emission of light. Here, we performed a Shockley-Queisser detailed balance analysis to predict the benefit of managing emitted photons in a single-junction solar cell. First, at low internal luminescence efficiency ηint, non-radiative recombination dominates, and management of emitted photons plays negligible role for Voc . Similarly, for an external luminescence efficiency ηext<10%, externally emitted photons... (More)

Recently, a lot of research focus has been on how to make solar cells more efficient. One direction is to enhance the open-circuit voltage Voc by optimizing the emission of photons in the cell, where emission is a necessary loss process due to the reciprocity between absorption and emission of light. Here, we performed a Shockley-Queisser detailed balance analysis to predict the benefit of managing emitted photons in a single-junction solar cell. First, at low internal luminescence efficiency ηint, non-radiative recombination dominates, and management of emitted photons plays negligible role for Voc . Similarly, for an external luminescence efficiency ηext<10%, externally emitted photons play negligible role, and Voc is set either by non-radiative recombination; or parasitic absorption of internally emitted photons. For higher ηext, the Voc can be boosted, maximally by 15%, by restricting the external emission to match the incidence cone of the AM1.5D sun light spectrum. Such emission restriction corresponds to lower escape probability of internally emitted photons, enhances photon recycling, drops ηext, and actually makes the solar cell into a worse LED. Finally, for partly diffuse incident light, by restricting the angular emission for photons in a 130 nm wavelength range around the bandgap, we predict a maximum 14% relative boost in solar cell efficiency. The results of this paper are intended to serve as a general guideline on how to utilize emission-tuning possibilities to develop highly efficient photovoltaic devices.

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Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Emisison management, Open-circuit voltage, Solar cell
in
Journal of Physics Communications
volume
3
issue
5
article number
055009
publisher
IOP Publishing
external identifiers
  • scopus:85078295462
ISSN
2399-6528
DOI
10.1088/2399-6528/ab1cc4
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
2cec36e6-a399-4781-9b24-2055c980ab8d
date added to LUP
2020-02-03 15:28:34
date last changed
2023-11-19 23:33:42
@article{2cec36e6-a399-4781-9b24-2055c980ab8d,
  abstract     = {{<p>Recently, a lot of research focus has been on how to make solar cells more efficient. One direction is to enhance the open-circuit voltage V<sub>oc</sub> by optimizing the emission of photons in the cell, where emission is a necessary loss process due to the reciprocity between absorption and emission of light. Here, we performed a Shockley-Queisser detailed balance analysis to predict the benefit of managing emitted photons in a single-junction solar cell. First, at low internal luminescence efficiency η<sub>int</sub>, non-radiative recombination dominates, and management of emitted photons plays negligible role for V<sub>oc</sub> . Similarly, for an external luminescence efficiency η<sub>ext</sub>&lt;10%, externally emitted photons play negligible role, and V<sub>oc</sub> is set either by non-radiative recombination; or parasitic absorption of internally emitted photons. For higher η<sub>ext</sub>, the V<sub>oc</sub> can be boosted, maximally by 15%, by restricting the external emission to match the incidence cone of the AM1.5D sun light spectrum. Such emission restriction corresponds to lower escape probability of internally emitted photons, enhances photon recycling, drops η<sub>ext</sub>, and actually makes the solar cell into a worse LED. Finally, for partly diffuse incident light, by restricting the angular emission for photons in a 130 nm wavelength range around the bandgap, we predict a maximum 14% relative boost in solar cell efficiency. The results of this paper are intended to serve as a general guideline on how to utilize emission-tuning possibilities to develop highly efficient photovoltaic devices.</p>}},
  author       = {{Anttu, Nicklas and Kivisaari, Pyry and Chen, Yang}},
  issn         = {{2399-6528}},
  keywords     = {{Emisison management; Open-circuit voltage; Solar cell}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{5}},
  publisher    = {{IOP Publishing}},
  series       = {{Journal of Physics Communications}},
  title        = {{Tailored emission to boost open-circuit voltage in solar cells}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/2399-6528/ab1cc4}},
  doi          = {{10.1088/2399-6528/ab1cc4}},
  volume       = {{3}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}