The use of III-V quantum heterostructures in PV: thermodynamic issues

Author

Mazzer, M. ; Barnham, K.W.J. ; Ekins-Daukes, Ned ; Bushnell, D.B. ; Connolly, James

Author_Institution

Inst. per la Microelectron., Consiglio Nat. delle Res., UK

Volume

3

fYear

2003

fDate

18-18 May 2003

Firstpage

2661

Abstract

Can the efficiency enhancement in (single photon) III-V multi-quantum well photovoltaic cells be explained without violating the second law of thermodynamics? In the first part of the paper we present and discuss a tentative solution of the problem. In the second part, the reduction of power losses associated to carrier thermalisation in high efficiency cells is discussed from the point of view of how to engineer the spectral properties of the radiation source. Particular attention is devoted to a thermodynamic model we have recently develop to explain the behaviour of a wide class of selective emitters for thermophotovoltaic applications.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; Seebeck effect; alumina; aluminium compounds; erbium; gallium arsenide; hot carriers; nonequilibrium thermodynamics; photoluminescence; semiconductor quantum wells; semiconductor superlattices; solar energy conversion; thermophotovoltaic cells; Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/:Er; AlGaAs-GaAs; III-V multiquantum well; III-V quantum heterostructure; carrier thermalisation; high efficiency cell; photovoltaic cell; power loss reduction; radiation source; selective emitter; spectral properties; tentative solution; thermodynamic model; thermodynamics second law; thermophotovoltaic application;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Energy Conversion, 2003. Proceedings of 3rd World Conference on

Conference_Location

Osaka, Japan

Print_ISBN

4-9901816-0-3

Type

conf

Filename

1305139