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Detailed balance method for thin photovoltaic converters

Detailed balance method for thin photovoltaic converters
Detailed balance method for thin photovoltaic converters
Thermodynamics and detailed balance arguments have provided the basic ideas for the understanding of solar cell efficiencies from a theoretical point of view. The general thermodynamic theories (see, for example,1) are usually not specific to details of the solar energy converter and hence give the most general and unrealistically high estimates. The Shockley-Queisser theory2 is based on the detailed balance between the incident and emitted photon fluxes.
The incident flux - assumed to be completely absorbed by the cell - is approximated by a black-body distribution at temperature Ts of the sun. The emitted photon flux is often written in the form of a modified Planck distribution at the ambient temperature To. The resulting efficiency contains only one parameter of the semiconductor: the energy gap Eg. In the limit Eg>>kTs, the open circuit voltage can be approximated by3.
206-207
Markvart, T.
f21e82ec-4e3b-4485-9f27-ffc0102fdf1c
Landsberg, P.T.
430ba980-a590-4d7c-8c03-9ecf192c21d3
Markvart, T.
f21e82ec-4e3b-4485-9f27-ffc0102fdf1c
Landsberg, P.T.
430ba980-a590-4d7c-8c03-9ecf192c21d3

Markvart, T. and Landsberg, P.T. (2003) Detailed balance method for thin photovoltaic converters. Proceedings of 16th Workshop on Quantum Solar Energy Conversion. 01 Jan 2004. pp. 206-207 .

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

Abstract

Thermodynamics and detailed balance arguments have provided the basic ideas for the understanding of solar cell efficiencies from a theoretical point of view. The general thermodynamic theories (see, for example,1) are usually not specific to details of the solar energy converter and hence give the most general and unrealistically high estimates. The Shockley-Queisser theory2 is based on the detailed balance between the incident and emitted photon fluxes.
The incident flux - assumed to be completely absorbed by the cell - is approximated by a black-body distribution at temperature Ts of the sun. The emitted photon flux is often written in the form of a modified Planck distribution at the ambient temperature To. The resulting efficiency contains only one parameter of the semiconductor: the energy gap Eg. In the limit Eg>>kTs, the open circuit voltage can be approximated by3.

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More information

Published date: 2003
Venue - Dates: Proceedings of 16th Workshop on Quantum Solar Energy Conversion, 2004-01-01 - 2004-01-01

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 22754
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/22754
PURE UUID: afa77eb0-8133-4203-9ecc-ad635852deac

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 15 May 2006
Last modified: 22 Jul 2022 20:27

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Contributors

Author: T. Markvart
Author: P.T. Landsberg

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