Teaching the physical principles of photovoltaics or solar cell as a quantum converter

Markvart, Tom (2002) Teaching the physical principles of photovoltaics or solar cell as a quantum converter. International Workshop on Teaching in Photovoltaics (IWTPV '02), Prague, Czech Republic. 25 - 26 Sep 2002. 13 pp .

Abstract

The teacher of photovoltaics is faced by a number of challenges, many associated with the interdisciplinary nature of the subject. A true expert in this field will have to master topics as diverse as physics and astronomy, chemistry, material science and electrical engineering, to say nothing of civil engineering and architecture if solarcells are to be used as a building component. Somewhat fortuitously, the full breadth of the subject is rarely needed, and a more limited syllabus can be chosen depending on the profession or trade the students are likely to enter when they leave the higher education establishment - be it solar cell manufacture, PV system industry, or a research institution. This paper focuses on a small part of this broad subject: how the fundamentals of photovoltaics can be taught at a general level, to students who might have minimum background in semiconductor physics or electronics. Indeed, it is shown that photovoltaics can be explained in similar terms as the photochemical conversion mechanism, including photosynthesis and the dye-sensitised solar cell. As a brief interlude, Sec. 2 describes a more general course on photovoltaics which was given for several years at Southampton University.

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