Resonant tunneling diodes as energy-selective contacts used in hot-carrier solar cells

Among the four features unique to hot-carrier solar cells (HC-SCs): (i) carrier thermalization time and (ii) carrier equilibration time in the absorber, (iii) energy-selection width and (iv) conductance of the energy-selective contacts (ESCs), requisites of (i)-(iii) for high conversion efficiency h...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of applied physics Vol. 118; no. 12
Main Authors Takeda, Yasuhiko, Ichiki, Akihisa, Kusano, Yuya, Sugimoto, Noriaki, Motohiro, Tomoyoshi
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Melville American Institute of Physics 28.09.2015
Subjects
Applied physics
CARRIERS
CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS
Diodes
EFFECTIVE MASS
Energy conversion efficiency
HAMILTONIANS
Photovoltaic cells
QUANTUM DOTS
QUANTUM WELLS
Resistance
Resonant tunneling
SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIALS
SOLAR CELLS
Thermalization (energy absorption)
TUNNEL DIODES
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Summary:Among the four features unique to hot-carrier solar cells (HC-SCs): (i) carrier thermalization time and (ii) carrier equilibration time in the absorber, (iii) energy-selection width and (iv) conductance of the energy-selective contacts (ESCs), requisites of (i)-(iii) for high conversion efficiency have been clarified. We have tackled the remaining issues related to (iv) in the present study. The detailed balance model of HC-SC operation has been improved to involve a finite value of the ESC conductance to find the required values, which in turn has been revealed to be feasible using resonant tunneling diodes (RTDs) consisting of semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) and quantum wells (QWs) by means of a formulation to calculate the conductance of the QD- and QW-RTDs derived using the rigorous solutions of the effective-mass Hamiltonians. Thus, all of the four requisites unique to HC-SCs to achieve high conversion efficiency have been elucidated, and the two requisites related to the ESCs can be fulfilled using the QD- and QW-RTDs.
ISSN:0021-8979
1089-7550
DOI:10.1063/1.4931888