Solar Cells and Photovoltaics

Among many material candidates for next-generation solar cells, quantum dots offer unique opportunities. Aiming to maximally harness their nanoscale bandgap engineering, in this work we outline a multiscale, multiphysics modeling approach for the device level simulation of quantum dot solar cells. Examples of experimental validation are discussed, emphasizing the potential of light trapping techniques towards […]

We present a comprehensive opto-electronic simulation framework for the computational analysis and optimization of perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells, consisting of a combination of a multiscale optical model for the simultaneous consideration of interference in thin coatings and scattering at textured interfaces with a mixed electronic-ionic drift-diffusion transport model that captures the peculiarities of the geometries […]

In contrast to their bulk counterparts, ultrathin solar cells exhibit bias-dependent optical properties. This has severe implications for the validity of conventional opto-electronic reciprocity relations. We review the predictions of this phenomenon from quantum-kinetic theory and discuss the experimental confirmation, as well as the extension of the theoretical framework for the rigorous assessment of photon […]

UV-selective absorbing perovskites have attracted significant interest due to their potential applications in innovative fields, such as building integration photovoltaics. This appeal arises from the possibility to tune the bandgap by simply varying their crystal composition. In this work we present electro-optical simulations to study the effect of Cl doping in MAPb(Br1-xClx)3 based semi-transparent solar […]

Three-terminal solar cells exploiting the heterojunction bipolar transistor structure combine the advantages of independently connected tandem cell architectures – suboptimal gaps, high resilence to spectral variations and to radiation damage – with a simple monolithic structure, since they do not need tunnel junctions. In this work, we study this novel device concept by means of […]

In this contribution we performed opto-electrical simulations of heterojunction silicon (HJ Si) solar cell with Indium-Tin-Oxide layers included in simulations as front and rear contacts. Two-dimensional numerical simulations using Sentaurus TCAD software were carried out. We studied the effect of defect state density in p- and n-type hydrogenated amorphous silicon layers on device performance. Rigorous […]

In this work, we presented simulations of capacitance of polycrystalline solar cells using time-dependent calculations based on the finite element method. Our starting point was capacitance transient measurements of thin-film CIGS solar cells, which to this day, after twenty years of investigations, do not have the correct theoretical description. We showed, that there exists a […]

The lateral photovoltage scanning method (LPS) can be used to detect undesired impurities which appear in silicon crystals during growth. Our goal is to make a digital twin of the LPS method. To this end, we replace inflexible blackbox code with a physics preserving finite volume discretization, confirming three theoretical results via a new simulation […]

Numerical study of metal front contacts grid spacing for photovoltaic (PV) devices is presented with application to PV converter of relatively small size. The model is constructed based on the open source Solcore Python library. A three-step-process is developed to create a hybrid quasi-3D model. The optimal grid spacing was simulated at different temperatures to […]

Perovskite solar cells have attracted great attention in recent years due to its advantageous features including low production cost. Incorporation of plasmonic metal nanocrystals is a promising approach for broadening and enhancing the light harvesting of Perovskite solar cells. In this paper, we report a facile and versatile route to tune the photoresponse of perovskite […]