Enhanced conversion efficiency in Si solar cells employing photoluminescent down-shifting CdSe/CdS core/shell quantum dotsShow others and affiliations
2017 (English)In: Scientific Reports, E-ISSN 2045-2322, Vol. 7, no 1, article id 14104Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Silicon solar cells have captured a large portion of the total market of photovoltaic devices mostly due to their relatively high efficiency. However, Silicon exhibits limitations in ultraviolet absorption because high-energy photons are absorbed at the surface of the solar cell, in the heavily doped region, and the photo-generated electron-hole pairs need to diffuse into the junction region, resulting in significant carrier recombination. One of the alternatives to improve the absorption range involves the use of down-shifting nano-structures able to interact with the aforementioned high energy photons. Here, as a proof of concept, we use downshifting CdSe/CdS quantum dots to improve the performance of a silicon solar cell. The incorporation of these nanostructures triggered improvements in the short circuit current density (Jsc, from 32.5 to 37.0 mA/cm2). This improvement led to a ∼13% increase in the power conversion efficiency (PCE), from 12.0 to 13.5%. Our results demonstrate that the application of down-shifting materials is a viable strategy to improve the efficiency of Silicon solar cells with mass-compatible techniques that could serve to promote their widespread utilization.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Nature Publishing Group, 2017. Vol. 7, no 1, article id 14104
National Category
Other Physics Topics
Research subject
Experimental physics
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:ltu:diva-66311DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-14269-0ISI: 000413816000034PubMedID: 29074855Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85032469276OAI: oai:DiVA.org:ltu-66311DiVA, id: diva2:1153338
Note
Validerad;2017;Nivå 2;2017-10-30 (andbra)
2017-10-302017-10-302022-09-15Bibliographically approved