SCIENCE@home

Enhanced conversion efficiency in Si solar cells employing photoluminescent down-shifting CdSe/CdS core/shell quantum dots

R. Lopez-Delgado,Yufeng Zhou,A. Zazueta-Raynaud,A. Zazueta-Raynaud,Haiguang Zhao,J. Pelayo,J. Pelayo,A. Vomiero,M. Álvarez-Ramos,F. Rosei,A. Ayón

Published 2017 in Scientific Reports

ABSTRACT

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.

PUBLICATION RECORD

CITATION MAP

EXTRACTION MAP

CLAIMS

  • No claims are published for this paper.

CONCEPTS

  • No concepts are published for this paper.

REFERENCES

Showing 1-40 of 40 references · Page 1 of 1

CITED BY

Showing 1-48 of 48 citing papers · Page 1 of 1