The solar power conversion efficiency of a gallium indium phosphide(GaInP)/silicon(Si)tandem solar cell has been investigated by means of a physical device simulator considering both mechanically stacked and monolithic structures.In particular,to interconnect the bottom and top sub-cells of the monolithic tandem,a gallium arsenide(GaAs)-based tunnel-junction,i.e.GaAs(n+)/GaAs(p+),which assures a low electrical resistance and an optically low-loss connection,has been considered.The J–V characteristics of the single junction cells,monolithic tandem,and mechanically stacked structure have been calculated extracting the main photovoltaic parameters.An analysis of the tunnel-junction behaviour has been also developed.The mechanically stacked cell achieves an efficiency of 24.27%whereas the monolithic tandem reaches an efficiency of 31.11%under AM1.5 spectral conditions.External quantum efficiency simulations have evaluated the useful wavelength range.The results and discussion could be helpful in designing high efficiency monolithic multijunction GaInP/Si solar cells involving a thin GaAs(n+)/GaAs(p+)tunnel junction.
Photoelectrodes with a specific structure and composition have been proposed for improving the efficiency of solar water splitting. Here, a novel multijunction structure was fabricated, with Si nanowires as cores, ZnIn2S4 nanosheets as branches, and TiO2 films as sandwiched layers. This junction exhibited a superior photoelectrochemical performance with a maximum photoconversion efficiency of 0.51%, which is 795 and 64 times higher than that of a bare Si wafer and nanowires, respectively. The large enhancement was attributed to the effective electron-hole separation and fast excited carrier transport within the multijunctions resulting from their favorable energy band alignments with water redox potentials, and to the enlarged contact area for facilitating the electron transfer at the multijunction/electrolyte interface.
Qiong LiuFangli WuFengren CaoLei ChenXinjian XieWeichao WangWei TianLiang Li
Based on the facts that multijunction solar cells can increase the efficiency and concentration can reduce the cost dramatically, a special design of parallel multijunction solar cells was presented. The design employed a diffractive optical element （DOE） to split and concentrate the sunlight. A rainbow region and a zero-order diffraction region were generated on the output plane where solar cells with corresponding band gaps were placed. An analytical expression of the light intensity distribution on the output plane of the special DOE was deduced, and the limiting photovoltaic efficiency of such parallel multijunction solar ceils was obtained based on Shockley-Queisser＇s theory. An efficiency exceeding the Shockley--Queisser limit （33%） can be expected using multijunction solar cells consisting of separately fabricated subcells. The results provide an important alternative approach to realize high photovoltaic efficiency without the need for expensive epitaxial technology widely used in tandem solar cells, thus stimulating the research and application of high efficiency and low cost solar cells.
Following a previously introduced entropy approach and reviewing experimental measurements, we find a similarity option between photoelectric effects, photovoltaic effects and thermoelectric effects. The photovoltaic effect and the thermoelectric effect are proved in this study to be driven by a Seebeck effect which depends mainly on the thermal potential of the incident radiation and the interacting materials. Hence, we apply such exciting conclusion to derive an advanced efficiency limit of the developed and multijunction solar cells that exceed the previously derived limit by Shockley and Queisser.
Two improved algorithms are proposed to extend a diffractive optical element （DOE） to work under the broad spec- trum of sunlight. An optimum design has been found for the DOE, with a weighted average optical efficiency of about 6.8% better than that of the previous design. The optimization of designing high optical efficiency DOEs will pave the way for future designs of high-efficiency, low-cost lateral multijunction solar cells based on such a DOE.
