High-Efficiency Multijunction Solar Cells

MRS Bulletin ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 230-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Dimroth ◽  
Sarah Kurtz
Keyword(s):  
Solar Cells ◽  
Solar Cell ◽  
High Efficiency ◽  
Materials Science ◽  
Photovoltaic Device ◽  
New Materials ◽  
Multijunction Solar Cells ◽  
Multijunction Solar Cell ◽  
High Absorption Coefficient ◽  
High Absorption

AbstractThe efficiency of a solar cell can be increased by stacking multiple solar cells with a range of bandgap energies, resulting in a multijunction solar cell with a maximum the oretical efficiency limit of 86.8% III–V compound semiconductors are good candidates for fabricating such multijunction solar cells for two reasons: they can be grown with excellent material quality; and their bandgaps span a wide spectral range, mostly with direct bandgaps, implying a high absorption coefficient. These factors are the reason for the success of this technology, which has achieved 39% efficiency, the highest solar-to-electric conversion efficiency of any photovoltaic device to date. This article explores the materials science of today's high-efficiency multijunction cells and describes challenges associated with new materials developments and how they may lead to next-generation, multijunction solar cell concepts.

scholarly journals III–V Multijunction Solar Cell Integration with Silicon: Present Status, Challenges and Future Outlook

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (3-4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikhil Jain ◽  
Mantu K. Hudait
Keyword(s):  
Solar Cells ◽  
Solar Cell ◽  
High Efficiency ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Si Substrate ◽  
Future Outlook ◽  
Si Solar Cells ◽  
Multijunction Solar Cells ◽  
The Future ◽  
Multijunction Solar Cell

AbstractAchieving high-efficiency solar cells and at the same time driving down the cell cost has been among the key objectives for photovoltaic researchers to attain a lower levelized cost of energy (LCOE). While the performance of silicon (Si) based solar cells have almost saturated at an efficiency of ~25%, III–V compound semiconductor based solar cells have steadily shown performance improvement at ~1% (absolute) increase per year, with a recent record efficiency of 44.7%. Integration of such high-efficiency III–V multijunction solar cells on significantly cheaper and large area Si substrate has recently attracted immense interest to address the future LCOE roadmaps by unifying the high-efficiency merits of III–V materials with low-cost and abundance of Si. This review article will discuss the current progress in the development of III–V multijunction solar cell integration onto Si substrate. The current state-of-the-art for III–V-on-Si solar cells along with their theoretical performance projections is presented. Next, the key design criteria and the technical challenges associated with the integration of III–V multijunction solar cells on Si are reviewed. Different technological routes for integrating III–V solar cells on Si substrate through heteroepitaxial integration and via mechanical stacking approach are presented. The key merits and technical challenges for all of the till-date available technologies are summarized. Finally, the prospects, opportunities and future outlook toward further advancing the performance of III–V-on-Si multijunction solar cells are discussed. With the plummeting price of Si solar cells accompanied with the tremendous headroom available for improving the III–V solar cell efficiencies, the future prospects for successful integration of III–V solar cell technology onto Si substrate look very promising to unlock an era of next generation of high-efficiency and low-cost photovoltaics.

scholarly journals A Brief Review of High Efficiency III-V Solar Cells for Space Application

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Li ◽  
A. Aierken ◽  
Y. Liu ◽  
Y. Zhuang ◽  
X. Yang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar Cells ◽  
Solar Cell ◽  
Radiation Damage ◽  
Radiation Resistance ◽  
Radiation Effects ◽  
High Efficiency ◽  
Space Application ◽  
Cell Structures ◽  
Multijunction Solar Cells ◽  
Multijunction Solar Cell

The demands for space solar cells are continuously increasing with the rapid development of space technologies and complex space missions. The space solar cells are facing more critical challenges than before: higher conversion efficiency and better radiation resistance. Being the main power supply in spacecrafts, III-V multijunction solar cells are the main focus for space application nowadays due to their high efficiency and super radiation resistance. In multijunction solar cell structure, the key to obtaining high crystal quality and increase cell efficiency is satisfying the lattice matching and bandgap matching conditions. New materials and new structures of high efficiency multijunction solar cell structures are continuously coming out with low-cost, lightweight, flexible, and high power-to-mass ratio features in recent years. In addition to the efficiency and other properties, radiation resistance is another sole criterion for space solar cells, therefore the radiation effects of solar cells and the radiation damage mechanism have both been widely studied fields for space solar cells over the last few decades. This review briefly summarized the research progress of III-V multijunction solar cells in recent years. Different types of cell structures, research results and radiation effects of these solar cell structures under different irradiation conditions are presented. Two main solar cell radiation damage evaluation models—the equivalent fluence method and displacement damage dose method—are introduced.

scholarly journals Studies on optical characteristics of CuInSe2 thin films

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Bhuiyan ◽  
Abdus Bhuiyan ◽  
Ahmad Hossain ◽  
Zahid Mahmood
Keyword(s):  
Thin Films ◽  
Optical Properties ◽  
Solar Cells ◽  
High Efficiency ◽  
Stoichiometric Composition ◽  
Film Material ◽  
High Efficiency Solar Cells ◽  
Evaporation Technique ◽  
High Absorption Coefficient ◽  
High Absorption

AbstractCuInSe2 is considered as a striking semiconductor for second generation solar cells. An investigation of optical properties of CuInSe2 thin films is essential to evaluate its perfectibility as high efficiency solar cells. The films were fabricated by thermal co-evaporation technique. For this experiment, a shimadzu spectrophotometer of model number 1201 is used. The optical properties of these films are determined for the wavelength range 350 nm–1100 nm. From the experiment it is evident that the reflectance and transmittance of the films are negligible in comparison to the absorption of these films. The high absorption coefficient of the order of 104/cm of the film material also supports this. The band gap of the CuInSe2 films was evaluated to be 1.1 eV. From XRD and EDAX analysis it is evident that CuInSe2 films are polycrystalline in nature having ideal stoichiometric composition.

Numerical Simulations for the Efficiency Improvement of Hybrid Dye-microcrystalline Silicon pin-solar cells

2011 ◽  
Vol 1322 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sven Burdorf ◽  
Gottfried H. Bauer ◽  
Rudolf Brüggemann
Keyword(s):  
Solar Cells ◽  
Solar Cell ◽  
Efficiency Improvement ◽  
Microcrystalline Silicon ◽  
Photovoltaic Applications ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
High Absorption Coefficient ◽  
Induced Defects ◽  
Defect Densities ◽  
High Absorption

ABSTRACTIn hybrid solar cells consisting of dye sensitizers incorporated in the i-layer of a microcrystalline silicon (μc-Si:H) pin solar cell the dye sensitizer molecules are embedded in the matrix and enhance the overall absorption of the dye-matrix system due to their high absorption coefficient in the spectral range interesting for photovoltaic applications. This contribution investigates the efficiency improvement of hybrid dye-μc-Si:H solar cells compared to pure μc-Si:H solar cells by simulation. The results indicate that, under optimum conditions, the efficiency can be improved by more than a factor of 1.2 compared to a pure μc-Si:H cell. The thickness reduction for the hybrid system can be as large as 50 % for the same efficiency. However, the efficiency improvement also depends on the amount of additionally induced defects in the matrix by the embedded dye molecules. Therefore, the simulations investigate the performance of the hybrid solar cell for different absorption enhancements and defect densities.

scholarly journals A simulation of Gallium Indium Nitride Based Solar Cells

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jin Wu
Keyword(s):  
Solar Cells ◽  
Solar Cell ◽  
Absorption Coefficient ◽  
Indium Nitride ◽  
Solar Spectrum ◽  
Thin Layers ◽  
Gallium Indium Nitride ◽  
Optimal Values ◽  
High Absorption Coefficient ◽  
High Absorption

InGaN can reach all values of bandgap from 3.42 to 0.7eV, which covers almost the entire solar spectrum. This study is to understand the influence of each parameter of the solar cell for an improved optimization of performance. The yield obtained for a reference cell is 12.2 % for optimal values of doping of the layers. For generation and recombination, performance of the cell varies with these settings. III nitrides have a high absorption coefficient, a very thin layers of material are sufficient to absorb most of the light.

scholarly journals Introduction, Past and Present Scenario of Solar Cell Materials

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
M. Rizwan
Keyword(s):  
Solar Cells ◽  
Solar Cell ◽  
Quantum Dot ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
High Efficiency ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Organic Hybrid ◽  
2Nd Generation ◽  
Multijunction Solar Cells ◽  
The Stability

Solar cells convert sunlight into electricity directly. It is a reliable, non-toxic and pollution free source of electricity. Since 19th century researchers have been trying to investigate different materials for solar cell devices. Commercially, Si based solar are predominate in this field, however, with passage of time different materials have been reported. Solar cell techniques are based on three different generations. 1st generation is based on Si and 2nd generation includes thin-films of CuInGaSe, GaAs, CdTe and GaInP etc. whereas 3rd generation is based on organic, hybrid perovskites, quantum dot (QD)-sensitizers & dye-sensitizers solar cells. Among all these, the 3rd generation solar cells are the most efficient and more cost effective than 1nd and 2nd generation solar cells. The 2nd generation is less costly but also less efficient compared to 1st generation. 3rd generation faces degradation of the photovoltaic materials which is a major problem. In this chapter different reported materials since 19th century for solar cells are mentioned. The past and present scenarios of solar cells are discussed comprehensively. It is observed that Si-based and multijunction solar cells dominate the market. Although, theoretically it is reported that hybrid perovskites and quantum dot materials for solar cell are the most efficient materials for photovoltaic PV devices. In spite of the high efficiency the stability of organic, hybrid perovskites, QD-sensitizers &dye-sensitizer materials is a big challenge.

High absorption-coefficient and stable a-Si for high-efficiency solar cells

2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Nakano ◽  
S. Okamoto ◽  
T. Takahama ◽  
M. Nishikuni ◽  
K. Ninomiya ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar Cells ◽  
Absorption Coefficient ◽  
High Efficiency ◽  
High Efficiency Solar Cells ◽  
High Absorption Coefficient ◽  
High Absorption

Designing Naphthyridinedione-Based Conjugated Polymer for Thickness-Tolerant High Efficiency Polymer Solar Cells

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jun-Mo Park ◽  
Tack Ho Lee ◽  
Dong Won Kim ◽  
Jae Won Kim ◽  
Hae Yeon Chung ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar Cells ◽  
Conjugated Polymers ◽  
Conjugated Polymer ◽  
High Efficiency ◽  
Polymer Solar Cells ◽  
Large Area ◽  
High Power Conversion Efficiency ◽  
Roll To Roll ◽  
High Absorption Coefficient ◽  
High Absorption

Conjugated polymers with a high absorption coefficient and high charge mobility are essential for high power conversion efficiency (PCE) and large area roll-to-roll processing of polymer solar cells. However, only...

Physics of High Efficiency Multijunction Solar Cells

1987 ◽  
Vol 95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Yang ◽  
Robert Ross ◽  
Ralph Mohr ◽  
Jeffrey P. Fournier
Keyword(s):  
Solar Cells ◽  
Solar Cell ◽  
High Efficiency ◽  
Stainless Steel Substrate ◽  
Steel Substrate ◽  
Device Physics ◽  
Spectrum Splitting ◽  
High Efficiency Solar Cells ◽  
Multijunction Solar Cells ◽  
Cell Layers

AbstractWe have shown that high efficiency solar cells can be obtained by incorporating materials of different band gaps in a multijunction configuration. This configuration gives rise to high efficiency due to spectrum splitting as well as superior stability due to thin top cells.We have fabricated multijunction solar cells and acheived a 13% conversion efficiency using 1.7eV a-Si:F:H and 1.5 eV a-Si:Ge:F:H materials in a three-cell triple configuration. This device was deposited onto a stainless steel substrate coated with a back reflector; it also incorporates a microcrystalline p+ layer.The physical properties of each of the solar cell layers and their role in the device physics of a high efficiency solar cell will be described.

scholarly journals Simulation Result of Gallium Indium Nitride Solar Cells

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
jin wu
Keyword(s):  
Solar Cells ◽  
Solar Cell ◽  
Absorption Coefficient ◽  
Indium Nitride ◽  
Solar Spectrum ◽  
Thin Layers ◽  
Gallium Indium Nitride ◽  
Optimal Values ◽  
High Absorption Coefficient ◽  
High Absorption

InGaN can reach all values of bandgap from 3.42 to 0.7eV, which covers almost the entire solar spectrum. This study is to understand the influence of each parameter of the solar cell for an improved optimization of performance. The yield obtained for a reference cell is 12.2 % for optimal values of doping of the layers. For generation and recombination, performance of the cell varies with these settings. III nitrides have a high absorption coefficient, a very thin layers of material are sufficient to absorb most of the light.

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