Detailed-balance power conversion limits of nanocrystal-quantum-dot solar cells in the presence of carrier multiplication

被引:169
作者
Klimov, Victor I. [1 ]
机构
[1] Los Alamos Natl Lab, Div Chem, Los Alamos, NM 87545 USA
关键词
D O I
10.1063/1.2356314
中图分类号
O59 [应用物理学];
学科分类号
摘要
Semiconductor nanocrystals can respond to absorption of a single photon by producing multiple electron-hole pairs with extremely high efficiencies. This letter analyzes the impact of this carrier-multiplication (CM) phenomenon on power conversion limits of solar cells using detailed-balance considerations that take into account practical values of CM efficiencies measured in experimental studies. For PbSe nanocrystals that exhibit a ca. 3E(g) CM threshold (E-g is the energy gap), the calculated maximum detailed-balance efficiency is 36% in the presence of CM versus 31% in the no-CM case. An increase to 42% is possible if the CM threshold is at its theoretical minimum of 2E(g). (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.
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