Charge-Carrier Transport in Thin Film Solar Cells: New Formulation

Solar cells rely on photogeneration of charge carriers in p-n junctions and their transport and subsequent recombination in the quasineutral regions. A number of basic issues concerning the physics of the operation of solar cells still remain obscure. This paper discusses some of those unsolved basi...

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Main Authors: Jesús E. Velazquez-Perez, Yuri G. Gurevich
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2011-01-01
Series:International Journal of Photoenergy
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2011/976063
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author Jesús E. Velazquez-Perez
Yuri G. Gurevich
author_facet Jesús E. Velazquez-Perez
Yuri G. Gurevich
author_sort Jesús E. Velazquez-Perez
collection DOAJ
description Solar cells rely on photogeneration of charge carriers in p-n junctions and their transport and subsequent recombination in the quasineutral regions. A number of basic issues concerning the physics of the operation of solar cells still remain obscure. This paper discusses some of those unsolved basic problems. In conventional solar cells, recombination of photogenerated charge carriers plays a major limiting role in the cell efficiency. High quality thin-film solar cells may overcome this limit if the minority diffusion lengths become large as compared to the cell dimensions, but, strikingly, the conventional model fails to describe the cell electric behavior under these conditions. A new formulation of the basic equations describing charge carrier transport in the cell along with a set of boundary conditions is presented. An analytical closed-form solution is obtained under a linear approximation. In the new framework given, the calculation of the open-circuit voltage of the solar cell diode does not lead to unphysical results.
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institution Kabale University
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publishDate 2011-01-01
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series International Journal of Photoenergy
spelling doaj-art-a88ae8197f374f8bac8a6a0b6aa25dcc2025-02-03T05:58:58ZengWileyInternational Journal of Photoenergy1110-662X1687-529X2011-01-01201110.1155/2011/976063976063Charge-Carrier Transport in Thin Film Solar Cells: New FormulationJesús E. Velazquez-Perez0Yuri G. Gurevich1Departamento de Física Aplicada, Universidad de Salamanca, 37008 Salamanca, SpainDepartamento de Física, CINVESTAV del I.P.N., Apartado Postal 14-740, 07000 Mexico, DF, MexicoSolar cells rely on photogeneration of charge carriers in p-n junctions and their transport and subsequent recombination in the quasineutral regions. A number of basic issues concerning the physics of the operation of solar cells still remain obscure. This paper discusses some of those unsolved basic problems. In conventional solar cells, recombination of photogenerated charge carriers plays a major limiting role in the cell efficiency. High quality thin-film solar cells may overcome this limit if the minority diffusion lengths become large as compared to the cell dimensions, but, strikingly, the conventional model fails to describe the cell electric behavior under these conditions. A new formulation of the basic equations describing charge carrier transport in the cell along with a set of boundary conditions is presented. An analytical closed-form solution is obtained under a linear approximation. In the new framework given, the calculation of the open-circuit voltage of the solar cell diode does not lead to unphysical results.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2011/976063
spellingShingle Jesús E. Velazquez-Perez
Yuri G. Gurevich
Charge-Carrier Transport in Thin Film Solar Cells: New Formulation
International Journal of Photoenergy
title Charge-Carrier Transport in Thin Film Solar Cells: New Formulation
title_full Charge-Carrier Transport in Thin Film Solar Cells: New Formulation
title_fullStr Charge-Carrier Transport in Thin Film Solar Cells: New Formulation
title_full_unstemmed Charge-Carrier Transport in Thin Film Solar Cells: New Formulation
title_short Charge-Carrier Transport in Thin Film Solar Cells: New Formulation
title_sort charge carrier transport in thin film solar cells new formulation
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2011/976063
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