Absorption and transport via tunneling in quantum-well solar cells

Absorption and tunneling are two major physical processes contributing to photocurrent generation in solar cells. Many new “ultra-high efficiency” PV devices utilize quantum effects to enhance their efficiency. This paper calculates the impact of quantum effects on the absorption and tunneling curre...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Solar energy materials and solar cells 2006-11, Vol.90 (18), p.3464-3470
Main Authors: Jani, Omkar, Honsberg, Christiana
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Absorption
Applied sciences
Energy
Exact sciences and technology
Natural energy
Photocurrent
Photovoltaic conversion
Quantum-well solar cells
Solar cells. Photoelectrochemical cells
Solar energy
Transport
Tunneling
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Summary:Absorption and tunneling are two major physical processes contributing to photocurrent generation in solar cells. Many new “ultra-high efficiency” PV devices utilize quantum effects to enhance their efficiency. This paper calculates the impact of quantum effects on the absorption and tunneling current as a function of electric fields and light trapping ratios. Results show that increasing electric fields enhance tunneling of photogenerated carriers, which dominates over the opposing effect of reduced absorption. Also, the significant advantage of light enhancement over increasing the number of quantum wells (QWs) has been demonstrated. These calculations allow optimizing the tunneling photocurrents in design of QW solar cells.
ISSN:0927-0248
1879-3398
DOI:10.1016/j.solmat.2006.01.004