Energy conversion efficiency of solar cells
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Bibliographic Information
Energy conversion efficiency of solar cells
（Green energy and technology）
Springer, c2019
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Description and Table of Contents
Description
This book offers a concise primer on energy conversion efficiency and the Shockley-Queisser limit in single p-n junction solar cells. It covers all the important fundamental physics necessary to understand the conversion efficiency, which is indispensable in studying, investigating, analyzing, and designing solar cells in practice. As such it is valuable as a supplementary text for courses on photovoltaics, and bridges the gap between advanced topics in solar cell device engineering and the fundamental physics covered in undergraduate courses.
The book first introduces the principles and features of solar cells compared to those of chemical batteries, and reviews photons, statistics and radiation as the physics of the source energy. Based on these foundations, it clarifies the conversion efficiency of a single p-n junction solar cell and discusses the Shockley-Queisser limit. Furthermore, it looks into various concepts of solar cells for breaking through the efficiency limit given in the single junction solar cell and presents feasible theoretical predictions. To round out readers' knowledge of p-n junctions, the final chapter also reviews the essential semiconductor physics.
The foundation of solar cell physics and engineering provided here is a valuable resource for readers with no background in solar cells, such as upper undergraduate and master students. At the same time, the deep insights provided allow readers to step seamlessly into other advanced books and their own research topics.
Table of Contents
1. The solar cell and the electrochemical cell
1.1 Principle of electricity generation in an electrochemical cell
1.2 Principle of electricity generation in a solar cell
1.3 Comparison between electrochemical cell and solar cell
2. Photons from the Sun
2.1 The wavelength of light and its energy
2.2 The wavelengths of sunlight
2.3 Black-body radiation
2.4 Definition of the solid angle
2.5 The photon flux from a black body
3. "Graphical solution" for the solar cell conversion efficiency in the completely ideal case
3.1 The conversion efficiency of a solar cell
3.2 The semiconductor band gap
3.3 Transmission and thermalization losses caused by the band gap
3.4 Definition of the ideal solar cell conditions
3.5 The three-dimensional visualization of the solar cell's output power
3.6 The derivation of the solar cell conversion efficiency curve for the completely ideal case
4. Influences of carrier generation and recombination on the solar cell conversion efficiency
4.1 The solar cell's energy input
4.2 The relation between electrical current and voltage
4.3 Short-circuit current and open-circuit voltage
5. The conversion efficiency of a solar cell as determined by the detailed balance model
5.1 The nominal efficiency
5.2 The detailed balance limit of the conversion efficiency
5.3 Losses in solar cells
6. Actual calculation of solar cell efficiencies
6.1 Single-junction solar cell
6.2 Concentrator solar cell
6.3 Multi-junction solar cell
6.4 Intermediate-band solar cell
6.5 Two-step photon up-conversion solar cell
6.6 Solar cells with spectral converters
6.7 Influence of the weather
6.8 Influence of the temperature
6.9 Indoor photovoltaic cell
7. Application limits for the ideal conditions
7.1 Consideration of the absorption coefficient
7.2 The minority-carrier diffusion
7.3 Photocurrent densities calculated for different materials under consideration of the layer thickness
8. Fundamentals of semiconductors
8.1 The semiconductor band gap
8.2 The intrinsic semiconductor
8.3 The extrinsic semiconductor
8.4 Energy levels of impurities and carrier generation
8.5 The carrier distribution within a band
8.6 The Fermi level
8.7 Temperature dependence of the carrier density
8.8 The currents in a semiconductor: drift current and diffusion current
8.9 The quasi-Fermi level
8.10 The p-n junction
8.11 Current-voltage characteristics of a p-n junction
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