| Title |
Pre-themalizational effect of hot carriers on photovoltage formation in a solar cell |
| Authors |
Masalskyi, Oleksandr ; Gradauskas, Jonas |
| DOI |
10.3116/16091833/23/3/117/2022 |
| Full Text |
|
| Is Part of |
Ukrainian journal of physical optics.. Lviv : Institute of Physical Optics. 2022, vol. 23, iss. 3, p. 117-125.. ISSN 1609-1833. eISSN 1816-2002 |
| Keywords [eng] |
solar cells ; p-n junctions ; photovoltage ; hot carriers ; efficiency |
| Abstract [eng] |
Although the power-conversion efficiency of single-junction solar cells achieved in practice is slowly increasing in the recent years, it still remains well below the theoretical Shockley–Queisser limit. We analyze in this relation the impact of hot carriers which represents an additional fundamental mechanism of intrinsic losses. We suggest that it is one of the reasons why the theoretical efficiency limit cannot be reached. We demonstrate that all of the solar photons participate in carrier heating, except for those having the energy equal to the bandgap. This supplies the process with more than 52% of the total incident solar energy. Finally, we give experimental evidence to a hot-carrier photovoltage (PV) arising in Si and GaAs cells before thermalization process. This PV is opposite to a classical PV induced by carrier generation, thus hindering the efficiency of p-n-junction solar cells. |
| Published |
Lviv : Institute of Physical Optics |
| Type |
Journal article |
| Language |
English |
| Publication date |
2022 |
