A solar cell converts sunlight directly into electricity through the photovoltaic effect. It uses a semiconductor material, typically silicon, to absorb photons and excite electrons to a higher energy state. The electrons then flow through an external circuit, generating electric current. Key parameters that determine a solar cell's performance include its short circuit current, open circuit voltage, maximum power point, and efficiency. Series and shunt resistances, temperature, and the absorption of different wavelengths of light also impact a solar cell's electrical characteristics and power output.
A solar cell converts sunlight directly into electricity through the photovoltaic effect. It uses a semiconductor material, typically silicon, to absorb photons and excite electrons to a higher energy state. The electrons then flow through an external circuit, generating electric current. Key parameters that determine a solar cell's performance include its short circuit current, open circuit voltage, maximum power point, and efficiency. Series and shunt resistances, temperature, and the absorption of different wavelengths of light also impact a solar cell's electrical characteristics and power output.
A solar cell converts sunlight directly into electricity through the photovoltaic effect. It uses a semiconductor material, typically silicon, to absorb photons and excite electrons to a higher energy state. The electrons then flow through an external circuit, generating electric current. Key parameters that determine a solar cell's performance include its short circuit current, open circuit voltage, maximum power point, and efficiency. Series and shunt resistances, temperature, and the absorption of different wavelengths of light also impact a solar cell's electrical characteristics and power output.
A solar cell converts sunlight directly into electricity through the photovoltaic effect. It uses a semiconductor material, typically silicon, to absorb photons and excite electrons to a higher energy state. The electrons then flow through an external circuit, generating electric current. Key parameters that determine a solar cell's performance include its short circuit current, open circuit voltage, maximum power point, and efficiency. Series and shunt resistances, temperature, and the absorption of different wavelengths of light also impact a solar cell's electrical characteristics and power output.
directly converts sunlight into electricity. Nearly all photovoltaic energy conversion uses semiconductor materials in the form of a p-n junction.
Whats a solar cell?
Light shining on the solar cell produces both a
current and a voltage to generate electric power.
Firstly, a material in which the absorption of light
raises an electron to a higher energy state. secondly, the movement of this higher energy electron from the solar cell into an external circuit. The electron then dissipates its energy in the external circuit and returns to the solar cell. 3
Solar Cell Structure
The basic steps in the operation of a solar cell are: the generation of lightgenerated carriers; the collection of the lightgenerated carries to generate a current; the generation of a large voltage across the solar cell; and the dissipation of power in the load and in parasitic resistances. 4
The first process is the absorption
of incident photons to create electron-hole pairs. Minority can recombine A second process, the collection by the p-n junction, prevents recombination by using a p-n junction to spatially separate the electron and the hole.
Collection of carriers
Minority carriers cannot cross a semiconductor-metal
boundary and to prevent reconbimation, they must pass the junction if they are to contribute to current flow.
Recombination of carriers
Collection Probability
The impact of surface passivation and diffusion length on collection probability The "collection probability" describes the probability that a light generated carrier absorbed in a certain region of the device will be collected by the p-n junction and therefore contribute to the light-generated current. 8
The light-generated current depends on the generation
of carriers and the collection probability of these carriers Sensitive to surface
Quantum efficiency
The "quantum efficiency" (Q.E.) is the ratio of the number of carriers collected by the solar cell to the number of photons of a given energy incident on the solar cell.
The "external" quantum efficiency of a
silicon solar cell includes the effect of optical losses such as transmission and reflection.
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Internal quantum efficiency
IQE is the ratio of the number of
charge carriers collected by the solar cell to the number of photons of a given energy that is absorbed by the cell. The IQE is always larger than the EQE. A low IQE indicates that the active layer of the solar cell is unable to make good use of the photons. A low EQE can indicate that, but it can also, instead, indicate that a lot of the light was reflected. 11
A Typical Solar cell
How PV Cells Work
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The Photovoltaic Effect
The collection of light-generated carriers by the p-n
junction causes a movement of electrons to the n-type side and holes to the p-type side of the junction. Under open circuit conditions, the forward bias of the junction increases to a point where the light-generated current is exactly balanced by the forward bias diffusion current, and the net current is zero. The voltage required to cause these two currents to balance is called the "opencircuit voltage". 13
Electrical characteristics of a solar cell
In the dark, a solar cell
behaves like a diode The current that flows across solar cell under a bias voltage in the dark is called the dark current (Idark). Under illumination, the minority carrier flow creates an opposite current to the dark current. Imax called light-generated current (Isc).
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Important parameters of a solar cell
Open circuit voltage (Voc): The voltage @ I = 0
Short circuit current (Isc): The current @ V=0 Max power density (Pmax): Pmax = Imax V max The Fill Factor (the squareness of the IV curve):
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Short circuit current Isc
Factors affect Isc 1. Band gap of semiconductor : smaller band-gap, lower energy
photon is required to excite electron, the higher Ic.
2. The thickness of the semiconducting materials.
3. The collection probability.
4. Light intensity: increasing intensity, increases Isc. 5. The area of the solar cell: J (mA/cm2) is used instead of I (mA) 16
Factors affecting Voc
1. Band gap: smaller band-gap, lower Vbi, lower Voc
2. Traps in the band gap induced by impurities, dislocations, etc 3. Traps at the semiconductor/metal contact 4. Temperature
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How bandgap affects efficiency
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Filling factor (FF)
Graphically, the FF is a measure of the "squareness" of
the solar cell and is also the area of the largest rectangle which will fit in the IV curve. 19
Power Conversion Efficiency
Where Ps is the incident light power
density. The standard test condition for solar cell is the Air Mass 1.5 spectrum (AM1.5), where Ps= 1000 W/m2 at T=25oC. 20
Tandem Solar Cells
Series connected cells are simpler to fabricate but the current is the same though each cell so this contrains the band gaps that can be used 21
Tandem Solar Cells
Efficiency of a an ideal stack of solar cells as a function of the number of bandgaps. The spectrum used here is the direct spectrum where the diffuse radiation is excluded. 22
Effect of Parasitic Resistances
The most common parasitic resistances are
series resistance and shunt resistance. 23
Origins of series resistance
The series resistance is caused by: 1. Resistance of p and n layers to majority carriers flow. 2. Semiconductor/metal contact resistance. 3. The resistance of the top and rear metal contacts. 4. The other due to poor insulation, for example on the edges of the cell.
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Origins of shunt resistance
1.
2.
3.
Shunt resistance, RSH, is typically due to
manufacturing defects, rather than poor solar cell design. Low shunt resistance causes power losses in solar cells by providing an alternate current path for the light-generated current. Such a diversion reduces the amount of current flowing through the solar cell junction and reduces the voltage from the solar cell. 25
Effect of Temperature
T increase equilibrium population of electrons (ni)
increases Idark increases lower Voc. T increase band gap reduction increase Isc. Voc reduction is more prominent than Isc enhancement.
