Optimal tunneling enhances the quantum photovoltaic effect in double quantum dots

We investigate the quantum photovoltaic effect in double quantum dots by applying the nonequilibrium quantum master equation. A drastic suppression of the photovoltaic current is observed near the open circuit voltage, which leads to a large filling factor. We find that there always exists an optima...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:New journal of physics 2014-04, Vol.16 (4), p.45019-16
Main Authors: Wang, Chen, Ren, Jie, Cao, Jianshu
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
73.23.-b
73.50.Pz
Circuits
electronic transport in mesoscopic systems
Mathematical analysis
Open circuit voltage
Optimization
photoconduction and photovoltaic effect
Photovoltaic cells
Photovoltaic effect
Physics
quantum description of interaction of light and matter
Quantum dots
Solar cells
Tunneling
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Summary:We investigate the quantum photovoltaic effect in double quantum dots by applying the nonequilibrium quantum master equation. A drastic suppression of the photovoltaic current is observed near the open circuit voltage, which leads to a large filling factor. We find that there always exists an optimal inter-dot tunneling that significantly enhances the photovoltaic current. Maximal output power will also be obtained around the optimal inter-dot tunneling. Moreover, the open circuit voltage behaves approximately as the product of the eigen-level gap and the Carnot efficiency. These results suggest a great potential for double quantum dots as efficient photovoltaic devices.
ISSN:1367-2630
1367-2630
DOI:10.1088/1367-2630/16/4/045019