The tremendous amount of research in solar energy is directed toward intermediate band solar cell for its advantages compared with the conventional solar cell. The latter has lower efficiency because the photons have lower energy than the bandgap energy and cannot excite mobile carriers from the valence band to the conduction band. On the other hand, if mini intermediate band is introduced between the valence and conduction bands, then the smaller energy photons can be used to promote charge carriers transfer to the conduction band and thereby the total current increases while maintaining a large open circuit voltage. In this article, the influence of the new band on the power conversion efficiency for structure of quantum dots intermediate band solar cell is theoretically investigated and studied. The time-independent Schrödinger equation is used to determine the optimum width and location of the intermediate band. Accordingly, achievement of a maximum efficiency by changing the width of quantum dots and barrier distances is studied. Theoretical determination of the power conversion efficiency under the two different ranges of QD width is presented. From the obtained results, the maximum power conversion efficiency is about 70.42%. It is carried out for simple cubic quantum dot crystal under fully concentrated light. It is strongly dependent on the width of quantum dots and barrier distances.
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21 March 2014
Research Article|
March 20 2014
Theoretical performance of solar cell based on mini-bands quantum dots Available to Purchase
Abou El-Maaty M. Aly;
Abou El-Maaty M. Aly
a)
1
Power Electronics and Energy Conversion Department, ERI
, NRCB, Egypt
2
College of Computer, Qassim University
, P.O.B. 6688, Buryadah 51453, KSA
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Abou El-Maaty M. Aly
1,2,a)
A. Nasr
2,3,a)
1
Power Electronics and Energy Conversion Department, ERI
, NRCB, Egypt
2
College of Computer, Qassim University
, P.O.B. 6688, Buryadah 51453, KSA
3
Radiation Engineering Department, NCRRT
, Atomic Energy Authority, Egypt
a)
Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed. Electronic addresses: [email protected], Tel.: +20-1020818863 (ARE) and +966-500960913 (KSA), Fax: +20-2-3369783 (ARE) and +966-6-3801731 (KSA) and [email protected], Tel.: +20-1068645668 (ARE) and +966-505901562 (KSA), Fax: +20-2-2749298 (ARE) and +966-6-3801731 (KSA).
J. Appl. Phys. 115, 114311 (2014)
Article history
Received:
November 24 2013
Accepted:
March 06 2014
Citation
Abou El-Maaty M. Aly, A. Nasr; Theoretical performance of solar cell based on mini-bands quantum dots. J. Appl. Phys. 21 March 2014; 115 (11): 114311. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4868982
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