Abstract
This chapter discusses the very fundamental working principle of a solar cell. It is intended to briefly motivate the relevance of carrier recombination and carrier transport to solar cell operation without going into technological detail.
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Notes
- 1.
The main lines of reasoning in this section draw on full derivations given in [1].
- 2.
This approximation is deemed accurate for \(|\varepsilon _F - \varepsilon _{C/V}|\gtrsim 3k_BT.\)
- 3.
Here, \(\Delta n_e = \Delta n_h = \Delta n\) is assumed.
- 4.
This derivation proceeds along the lines of a derivation given in [6].
- 5.
\(a_{e/h}\) enable a dimensionless logarithmic argument and incorporate a constant offset of \(\mu _{c,e/h}.\)
- 6.
Derivation proceeds along the lines of [6].
- 7.
Note that the maximum of the detailed balance limit (without concentration) as a function of band gap energy \(\varepsilon _G\) is shifted to \({\sim }1.3\,\mathrm{{eV}}\) as opposed to the maximum at \({\sim }1.1\,\mathrm{{eV}}\) encountered for the ultimate efficiency limit.
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Giesecke, J. (2014). Introduction to Solar Cell Operation. In: Quantitative Recombination and Transport Properties in Silicon from Dynamic Luminescence. Springer Theses. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-06157-3_2
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