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Light management issues in intermediate band solar cells

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2011

Antonio Martí,
Elisa Antolín,
Enrique Cánovas,
Pablo García Linares and
Antonio Luque
Antonio Martí
Affiliation:
amarti@etsit.upm.es, Instituto de Energía Solar - UPM, ETSIT Telecomunicación, Avda Complutense 30, Madrid, 28040, Spain, +34 914533551, +34 915446341
Elisa Antolín
Affiliation:
elisa@ies-def.upm.es, Instituto de Energía Solar - Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, ETSI Telecomunicación, Avda Complutense 30, Madrid, 28040, Spain
Enrique Cánovas
Affiliation:
canovas@ies-def.upm.es, Instituto de Energía Solar - Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, ETSI Telecomunicación, Avda Complutense 30, Madrid, 28040, Spain
Pablo García Linares
Affiliation:
p.garcia-linares@ies-def.upm.es, Instituto de Energía Solar - Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, ETSI Telecomunicación, Avda Complutense 30, Madrid, 28040, Spain
Antonio Luque
Affiliation:
luque@ies-def.upm.es, Instituto de Energía Solar - Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, ETSI Telecomunicación, Avda Complutense 30, Madrid, 28040, Spain
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Abstract

This paper discusses several topics related to light management that improve our understanding of the performance and potential of the intermediate band solar cell (IBSC). These topics are photon recycling, photon selectivity and light confinement. It is found that neglecting photon recycling leads to underestimate the limiting efficiency of the IBSC in 7 points (56.1 % vs 63.2 %). Light trapping allows to effectively absorbing photons whose energy is associated to the weakest of the optical transitions in the IBSC, allowing also for higher efficiencies with lower device thickness. The impact of photon selectivity on the cell performance is also discussed.

Keywords

photovoltaicsimulationoptical properties

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References

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