A Theoretical Perspective of the Photochemical Potential in the Spectral Performance of Photovoltaic Cells

We present a novel theoretical approach to the problem of light energy conversion in thermostated semiconductor junctions. Using the classical model of a two-level atom, we deduced formulas for the spectral response and the quantum efficiency in terms of the input photons’ non-zero chemical potentia...

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Published inEntropy (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 23; no. 5; p. 579
Main Authors Pérez-Madrid, Agustin, Santamaría-Holek, Ivan
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 08.05.2021
MDPI
Subjects
Atoms & subatomic particles
Chemical potential
Efficiency
Electric currents
Energy
Energy conversion
Energy dissipation
Equilibrium
Heat
Light
Performance evaluation
photochemical potential
Photovoltaic cells
PVC
Quantum efficiency
Radiation
Semiconductor junctions
Spectra
spectral entropy production
spectral response
Spectral sensitivity
Thermodynamics
two-level atom model
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Summary:We present a novel theoretical approach to the problem of light energy conversion in thermostated semiconductor junctions. Using the classical model of a two-level atom, we deduced formulas for the spectral response and the quantum efficiency in terms of the input photons’ non-zero chemical potential. We also calculated the spectral entropy production and the global efficiency parameter in the thermodynamic limit. The heat transferred to the thermostat results in a dissipative loss that appreciably controls the spectral quantities’ behavior and, therefore, the cell’s performance. The application of the obtained formulas to data extracted from photovoltaic cells enabled us to accurately interpolate experimental data for the spectral response and the quantum efficiency of cells based on Si-, GaAs, and CdTe, among others.
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These authors contributed equally to this work.
ISSN:1099-4300
1099-4300
DOI:10.3390/e23050579