2013
DOI: 10.1038/lsa.2013.1
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Highly efficient GaAs solar cells by limiting light emission angle

Abstract: In a conventional flat plate solar cell under direct sunlight, light is received from the solar disk, but is re-emitted isotropically. This isotropic emission corresponds to a significant entropy increase in the solar cell, with a corresponding drop in efficiency. Here, using a detailed balance model, we show that limiting the emission angle of a high-quality GaAs solar cell is a feasible route to achieving power conversion efficiencies above 38% with a single junction. The highest efficiencies are predicted f… Show more

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Cited by 285 publications
(203 citation statements)
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References 26 publications
(41 reference statements)
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“…Despite this theoretical prediction, until recently even the highest efficiency solar cells were not close enough to the radiative limit for such an effect to be observed. [5][6][7] However, with the introduction of cells lied off the growth substrate, GaAs cells have shown signicant gains in efficiency due to V oc increases, indicating an increase in the external radiative efficiency (ERE) of the cell. [2][3][4] In these lied-off GaAs cells radiatively emitted photons are reected from a metallized back surface instead of being absorbed in the substrate, resulting in a large increase in ERE and V oc .…”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Despite this theoretical prediction, until recently even the highest efficiency solar cells were not close enough to the radiative limit for such an effect to be observed. [5][6][7] However, with the introduction of cells lied off the growth substrate, GaAs cells have shown signicant gains in efficiency due to V oc increases, indicating an increase in the external radiative efficiency (ERE) of the cell. [2][3][4] In these lied-off GaAs cells radiatively emitted photons are reected from a metallized back surface instead of being absorbed in the substrate, resulting in a large increase in ERE and V oc .…”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Modeling shows that the optical cavity used in conjunction with patterned PV cells can even exceed the Yablonovitch limit for absorption, especially for ultrathin (<2µm) solar cells. The effect of the cavity can be even stronger for thin film PV cells with higher radiative recombination emission rates (such as GaAs), as the cavity-imposed emission angular selectivity also enables re-cycling of emitted photons [16,21].…”
Section: Resultsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Most strategies for enhancing thin-film cell absorption pursued up to this point have used cell surface texturing to scatter photons into a wider range of angles into the cell with the aim of approaching the Yablonovitch limit [10][11][12][13][14]. However, the PV cell efficiency can also be increased by limiting the angular range through which photons (both trapped and emitted in the process of radiative recombination) can escape the cell [15][16][17][18]. For angle limited PV cells, the maximum absorption enhancement factor is increased from to where is the half-angle of the absorption cone of the PV cell [19,20].…”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…The modal structure of light in thin cells is considered according to [20]. The Auger recombination is, in the case of intrinsic or very lightly doped material, given by [2]:…”
Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…With such a system, it is possible to reach the highest efficiencies [19]. A high quality broadband angularly selective filter is described in [20], which employs micro-concentrators at the front side to act as angle confining elements. A good light-trapping structure is a Lambertian Diffuser, which is considered in the following.…”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 99%