CHIMIA 2007, 6 1 ,No. 1 2 C himia 6 1(2007) 7 8 0 -7 8 6 © Sch w eiz e r i s c he C hemis c he G e s ells c h a f t ISSN 0009-42 9 3 P hot on C ollec t ion E ffi c ienc y of F l u o r e s c ent S ola r C ollec t o rsPatta r eey aKi ttidach ach a n, L eft e r i s Danos , T homa s J . J . M e y e r , N i c ola s A lder m a n, a nd T om Mar k v a rt* Abstract : P hot on c ollec t ion effic ienc y of flu o r e s c ent c ollec t o rs i s e x a mined e x per iment a lly a nd b y modelling, w i t h a v iewto a sse ss t he pot ent i a lof t his a ttract i v e s ola r ener g yte c hnology . T he edge flu o r e s c enc eof s ingle d y e c ollect o rs bas ed on R hoda mine 6 Gand C o u m a r in 540 A ,ma n u f actured b y a s imple f abr i cat ion t e c hnique, i s inv e stiga t ed in det a il. A nov el t e c hniquefo r det e r mina t ion of t he c ollec t ion effic ienc y i s p r e s ent ed bas ed on t he tra dit iona lmodel of flu o r e s c ent c ollec t o rs b ut e xtended t o a llowspec tra l a n a l ysi s . W e s howth a tthes e r e sul ts a g r ee w ell w i t hdi r e c t s ola r c ell mea surements. G ener a l c onc l usions a r ep r e s ent ed abo ut f u nda ment a ll o ss mec h a nis m s a nd abo ut t he r ole of r e-abs o r p t ion of flu o r e s c ent light . I t i ss how n t h a ts u b sta n t i a li mpr o v ements in c ollec t o r effic ienc y can b e m a de w i t h t he useofphot onic flu o r e s c enc e c onfinementra t herth a n b yto t a lin t e r n a l r eflec t ion.K e ywo r d s : F l u o r e s c ent c ollec t o rs ⋅ P hot on c ollec t ion effic ienc y ⋅ S ola r ener g y

The operation of a crystalline silicon solar cell was studied by a methodology based on collection efficiency. The collection efficiencies of the base, emitter, and depletion layers were determined separately using numerical solutions. The quantum efficiency was then determined by the reciprocity theorem. It is shown that the model can provide useful new insights and can be used to extract device parameters by fitting the modelled results to experimental data. r

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The chapter outlines a range of materials and techniques that can be employed to improve sunlight capture for application in photovoltaics (PV). We review processes such as simple luminescence down-shifting structures, luminescent (or fluorescent) solar collectors and light trapping via a frequency shift which result in an increase of the solar photon flux and significant reduction in PV material requirements. A simple two-flux model is presented within a unified treatment for the collectors and down-shifting structures to estimate re-absorption losses and to determine the collection efficiency based on spectroscopic measurements of the absorption and luminescence spectra. Photon frequency management materials are reviewed which use efficient resonance energy transfer to wavelength shift the incoming solar flux. We show that frequency photon management represents a powerful tool, allowing enhancement in light trapping above the Yablononovitch limit and leading to potentially highly efficient, but employing very thin crystalline silicon, solar cells.

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