Light trapping structures and plasmons synergistically enhance the photovoltaic performance of full-spectrum solar cells

Qiao, Fen; Xie, Yi; He, Gang; Chu, Huaqiang; Liu, Wenjie; Chen, Zhenya

doi:10.1039/c9nr08761c

Cited by 61 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 113 publications

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“…As is clear from Equations 4, 12, and 14, d is required to be as thin as possible for reduction in N SRH , U SRH , and U th . 19,58 For this purpose, light-trapping structures have been investigated and demonstrated to secure high absorptivity with a thin d. 59,60 However, it would be difficult to achieve notable light-trapping effects over the whole of the absorption range. Considering these present statuses, d was set to be 1 μm.…”

Section: Parameters Used For Numerical Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hot‐carrier solar cells and improved types using wide‐bandgap energy‐selective contacts

Takeda

2021

Progress in Photovoltaics

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I evaluated conversion efficiency of hot-carrier solar cells (HC-SCs) of the original type and two improved types: an HC-SC with intraband transition (HC-SC+intra) and an intermediate-band-assisted HC-SC (IB-HC-SC) that utilize sub-bandgap photons.For this purpose, three realistic points of great importance were involved in the newly constructed detailed-balance model: Shockley-Read-Hall (SRH) recombination of photogenerated carriers, characteristics of the energy-selective contacts (ESCs), and solar spectrum variation. I have revealed that the HC-SC+intra and IB-HC-SC can potentially yield annual electricity production comparable to those of triplejunction and quad-junction solar cells (3J-and 4J-SCs) when sub-bandgap photons are almost perfectly absorbed. The ESCs consisting of wide-bandgap layers extract the photogenerated carriers more rapidly owing to their larger conductance and consequently yield higher conversion efficiency than the ESCs using resonant tunneling diodes composed of quantum dots and quantum wells. This, in turn, enables the use of an absorber with a short SRH recombination time of the carriers. In other words, the efficiency is less sensitive to SRH recombination than those of the 3J-and 4J-SCs. In particular, for the IB-HC-SC, the requisite of the SRH recombination time is 1 ns, and that of the thermalization time is 0.1 ns; the latter is an order of magnitude shorter than the previous requisite. These HC-SCs are more robust against the solar spectrum variation because they are free from the current-matching problem unlike the 3J-and 4J-SCs, which also contributes to the large annual electricity production.

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Section: Parameters Used For Numerical Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hot‐carrier solar cells and improved types using wide‐bandgap energy‐selective contacts

Takeda

2021

Progress in Photovoltaics

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“…Due to II-VI and IV-VI colloidal semiconductor NCs have excellent light absorption properties and wide bandgap adjustment range, especially IV-VI PbX NCs have high absorption coefficient, wide band gap adjustment range, strong quantum confinement and multi-exciton effects, these unique excellent characteristics are very in line with the working requirements of solar cells, and have attracted much attention as efficient and inexpensive photovoltaic materials [123][124][125][126][127][128][129][130][131][132][133][134][135] .…”

Section: Solar Cellmentioning

confidence: 99%

Strategies for enhancing conductivity of colloidal nanocrystals and their photoelectronic applications

Qiao

Xie

2020

Journal of Energy Chemistry

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“…There are numerous nanostructures with which light can be trapped in thin-film solar cells. The most used approaches for light trapping are plasmonic nanoparticle structures [ 37 , 38 ], random scattering surfaces [ 28 ], periodic nanograting [ 39 , 40 ], nanowires [ 41 ], and photonic crystal structures [ 28 , 42 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Research Progress of Plasmonic Nanostructure-Enhanced Photovoltaic Solar Cells

et al. 2022

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Enhancement of the electromagnetic properties of metallic nanostructures constitute an extensive research field related to plasmonics. The latter term is derived from plasmons, which are quanta corresponding to longitudinal waves that are propagating in matter by the collective motion of electrons. Plasmonics are increasingly finding wide application in sensing, microscopy, optical communications, biophotonics, and light trapping enhancement for solar energy conversion. Although the plasmonics field has relatively a short history of development, it has led to substantial advancement in enhancing the absorption of the solar spectrum and charge carrier separation efficiency. Recently, huge developments have been made in understanding the basic parameters and mechanisms governing the application of plasmonics, including the effects of nanoparticles’ size, arrangement, and geometry and how all these factors impact the dielectric field in the surrounding medium of the plasmons. This review article emphasizes recent developments, fundamentals, and fabrication techniques for plasmonic nanostructures while investigating their thermal effects and detailing light-trapping enhancement mechanisms. The mismatch effect of the front and back light grating for optimum light trapping is also discussed. Different arrangements of plasmonic nanostructures in photovoltaics for efficiency enhancement, plasmonics’ limitations, and modeling performance are also deeply explored.

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Light trapping structures and plasmons synergistically enhance the photovoltaic performance of full-spectrum solar cells

Abstract: The trapping structure and plasmons have become two major ways to enhance light absorption and carrier transport to achieve high-performance full-spectrum solar cells.

Cited by 61 publications

References 113 publications

Hot‐carrier solar cells and improved types using wide‐bandgap energy‐selective contacts

Hot‐carrier solar cells and improved types using wide‐bandgap energy‐selective contacts

Strategies for enhancing conductivity of colloidal nanocrystals and their photoelectronic applications

Research Progress of Plasmonic Nanostructure-Enhanced Photovoltaic Solar Cells

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