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Can thermodynamics guide us to make better solar cells ?

Can thermodynamics guide us to make better solar cells ?
Can thermodynamics guide us to make better solar cells ?
Thermodynamics has provided a powerful tool to study radiation and its conversion into useful work. Starting from the so-called Shockley's paradox, this article discusses the thermodynamic view of fundamental losses to photovoltaic conversion, and how thermodynamics enters the charge-carrier transport in semiconductors and heat-exchange processes at p-n junctions. Turning to photon flows, considerations based on detailed balance and reciprocity provide a comprehensive picture of the voltage produced by the solar cell in the presence of nonradiative recombination. We shall use these tools to examine several topics under recent discussion, including photon recycling and hot-carrier conversion based on thermoelectricity.
photovoltaic cells, solar cells, THERMODYNAMICS, Thermoelectricity
2156-3381
1614 - 1624
Markvart, Tomas
f21e82ec-4e3b-4485-9f27-ffc0102fdf1c
Markvart, Tomas
f21e82ec-4e3b-4485-9f27-ffc0102fdf1c

Markvart, Tomas (2019) Can thermodynamics guide us to make better solar cells ? IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics, 9 (6), 1614 - 1624. (doi:10.1109/JPHOTOV.2019.2938665).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Thermodynamics has provided a powerful tool to study radiation and its conversion into useful work. Starting from the so-called Shockley's paradox, this article discusses the thermodynamic view of fundamental losses to photovoltaic conversion, and how thermodynamics enters the charge-carrier transport in semiconductors and heat-exchange processes at p-n junctions. Turning to photon flows, considerations based on detailed balance and reciprocity provide a comprehensive picture of the voltage produced by the solar cell in the presence of nonradiative recombination. We shall use these tools to examine several topics under recent discussion, including photon recycling and hot-carrier conversion based on thermoelectricity.

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Accepted/In Press date: 26 August 2019
e-pub ahead of print date: 7 October 2019
Published date: November 2019
Keywords: photovoltaic cells, solar cells, THERMODYNAMICS, Thermoelectricity

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 436846
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/436846
ISSN: 2156-3381
PURE UUID: 2adca341-f0f7-4f7d-bfee-e8f746b07e8f

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Date deposited: 10 Jan 2020 17:35
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 05:20

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