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Auger recombination and impact ionisation in heterojunction photovoltaic cells

Auger recombination and impact ionisation in heterojunction photovoltaic cells
Auger recombination and impact ionisation in heterojunction photovoltaic cells
This paper reports a theoretical study of heterojunction solar cell efficiencies to include the effect of band - band impact ionization, the band - band Auger recombination and the p - n junction structure. We also study conditions under which configuration A (light encounters the large energy gap first) or configuration B (light encounters the small energy gap first) is the optimal heterojunction configuration for a solar cell, other conditions being kept fixed. Constant efficiency contour diagrams having the energy gaps as axes show that, subject to our assumptions, the best efficiencies are only of order 38% for a black body equivalent to one sun. The higher efficiencies are favoured by the smaller semiconductor widths. Open-circuit voltage, short-circuit current density and fill factor are also calculated for several sets of cell parameters.
1895-1900
Liakos, John K.
b43084df-83d5-44eb-988d-962e039903ff
Landsberg, Peter T.
cd811241-233f-4791-baa6-3c1abfc4cf8b
Liakos, John K.
b43084df-83d5-44eb-988d-962e039903ff
Landsberg, Peter T.
cd811241-233f-4791-baa6-3c1abfc4cf8b

Liakos, John K. and Landsberg, Peter T. (1996) Auger recombination and impact ionisation in heterojunction photovoltaic cells. Semiconduntor Science and Technology, 11 (12), 1895-1900. (doi:10.1088/0268-1242/11/12/022).

Record type: Article

Abstract

This paper reports a theoretical study of heterojunction solar cell efficiencies to include the effect of band - band impact ionization, the band - band Auger recombination and the p - n junction structure. We also study conditions under which configuration A (light encounters the large energy gap first) or configuration B (light encounters the small energy gap first) is the optimal heterojunction configuration for a solar cell, other conditions being kept fixed. Constant efficiency contour diagrams having the energy gaps as axes show that, subject to our assumptions, the best efficiencies are only of order 38% for a black body equivalent to one sun. The higher efficiencies are favoured by the smaller semiconductor widths. Open-circuit voltage, short-circuit current density and fill factor are also calculated for several sets of cell parameters.

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Published date: 1996

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 29468
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/29468
PURE UUID: 2d571243-dc6c-410f-823c-a0cf53181b0b

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Date deposited: 22 Dec 2006
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 07:32

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Contributors

Author: John K. Liakos
Author: Peter T. Landsberg

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