Electronic and thermal transport in hot carrier solar cells with low-dimensional contacts

Authors

Mark F. O'Dwyer, University of WollongongFollow
T. E. Humphrey, University of Wollongong
Roger A. Lewis, University of WollongongFollow
Chao Zhang, University of WollongongFollow

RIS ID

22493

Publication Details

O''Dwyer, M. F., Humphrey, T., Lewis, R. A. and Zhang, C. (2008). Electronic and thermal transport in hot carrier solar cells with low-dimensional contacts. Microelectronics Journal, 39 (3/4), 656-659.

Abstract

Hot carrier solar cells are a third generation solar cell device where electrons and holes, heated by solar radiation, are removed from the absorber via low-dimensional energy selective contacts before they can thermalise to the band edge. Here, a new model is presented for calculating the performance of these devices, which takes into account the energy spectrum of the contacts. It is shown that efficiency is maximised with a certain ideal number of contacts and that the energy spectra of these should be narrow.