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Exotic Solar Technologies
Published in Anco S. Blazev, Solar Technologies for the 21st Century, 2021
Subsequent modifications and refinements of the initial balance analysis of the intermediate band solar cell have confirmed its potential for high efficiency. And it is the high value of the IB solar cell’s limiting efficiency that has attracted many scientists to work in this field.
A Review of the Theoretical Results Associated with the Intermediate Bandgap Solar Cell Materials
Published in Amit Soni, Dharmendra Tripathi, Jagrati Sahariya, Kamal Nayan Sharma, Energy Conversion and Green Energy Storage, 2023
Aditi Gaur, Karina Khan, Amit Soni, Jagrati Sahariya, Alpa Dashora
An innovative approach to tackle the energy needs is through a photovoltaic device named intermediate band solar cell (IBSC) which offers a theoretical efficiency limit of 63.2%. It is potentially relied on for providing increased photo-generated current without degrading the value of output voltage. The concept in practice goes in this way: an intermediate band is necessarily synthesized with a discovery of novel semiconductor material that offers a band that is present at level three within the existing bandgap. The electronic population is scattered in all three zones/bands which split into quasi-Fermi levels, i.e., splitting at room temperature and also the non-radiative recombination rates should not exceed a defined limit. Currently, this feature can be achieved with the help of two approaches that are being actively investigated. The approaches are (i) quantum dot arrays self-assembled and (ii) semiconductors doped with an impurity. Samples that contain quantum dots usually play the role of IBSCs at low-valued temperature but face issues in reporting the properties succeed at room temperature. Materials that are impurity-doped show profitable optical features and are currently a growing field for researchers working on the reduction of their non-radiative recombination rates [52]. In a work, two possible semiconductor materials were discovered for IBSCs, and these materials were utilized as a used case, to identify obstacles in the realization of IBSCs. For ZnO/IB-Cu2O/Cu2O cell, the analysis of an IBSC system has been given with the major objective of analyzing and optimizing the intermediate band solar cell. This was done to judge whether Cu2O and ZnO are promising IBSC materials [53]. Although intermediate bands are produced artificially which needs extra efforts if we can have natural intermediate bandgaps, these can also prove beneficial for research eliminating the doping activity. One such work is shown in which bandgaps of quaternary chalcogenide semiconductors are grouped as I2-II-IV-VI4 (Cu2ZnSnS4 and Ag2ZnSnSe4) had been mentioned as a promising light-absorbing semiconductor material. Ag2ZnSnSe4 offered a bandgap approximately nearer to the optimal bandgap and exists in the form of a wurtzite-kesterite structure based on the Luque and Martinez model. Thus, can be claimed as an ideal light-absorbing semiconductor material of the intermediate band solar cells category. The width of Ag2ZnSnSe4’s intermediate band is quite large, limiting its efficiency and with a suitable doping amount the cell and intermediate band solar cells [59] needed bandgap can be attained to shift Fermi energy toward the intermediate band [54]. The structural and optoelectronic features of N-, P-, As- and Sb-doped Cu2ZnSiSe4 alloys are investigated in one of the works based on DFT using cell and intermediate band solar cells [59] needed bandgap can be attained to shift Fermi energy toward the intermediate band [54].
Material challenges for solar cells in the twenty-first century: directions in emerging technologies
Published in Science and Technology of Advanced Materials, 2018
Samy Almosni, Amaury Delamarre, Zacharie Jehl, Daniel Suchet, Ludmila Cojocaru, Maxime Giteau, Benoit Behaghel, Anatole Julian, Camille Ibrahim, Léa Tatry, Haibin Wang, Takaya Kubo, Satoshi Uchida, Hiroshi Segawa, Naoya Miyashita, Ryo Tamaki, Yasushi Shoji, Katsuhisa Yoshida, Nazmul Ahsan, Kentaro Watanabe, Tomoyuki Inoue, Masakazu Sugiyama, Yoshiaki Nakano, Tomofumi Hamamura, Thierry Toupance, Céline Olivier, Sylvain Chambon, Laurence Vignau, Camille Geffroy, Eric Cloutet, Georges Hadziioannou, Nicolas Cavassilas, Pierre Rale, Andrea Cattoni, Stéphane Collin, François Gibelli, Myriam Paire, Laurent Lombez, Damien Aureau, Muriel Bouttemy, Arnaud Etcheberry, Yoshitaka Okada, Jean-François Guillemoles
More generally quantum engineering based on behaviors such as resonant tunneling, miniband, and phonon-assisted tunneling will be necessary to design new concepts like quantum ratchet in intermediate band solar cell or contact in hot-carrier solar cells. For this quantum engineering modeling is essential.