Effect of Atmospheric Absorption Bands on the Optimal Design of Multijunction Solar Cells

William McMahon; Daniel Friedman; John Geisz

doi:10.1109/PVSC.2017.8366209

Effect of Atmospheric Absorption Bands on the Optimal Design of Multijunction Solar Cells

William McMahon, Daniel Friedman, John Geisz

Chemistry and Nanoscience

Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper

Abstract

The optimization of subcell bandgaps for seriesconnected multijunction solar cells is complicated by atmospheric absorption bands in terrestrial spectra, and this complexity increases with the number of subcells. We systematically characterize the resulting design space, and introduce a taxonomy for MJ cells based upon the position of subcell bandgaps with respect to atmospheric absorption bands. Once this is done, the full set of local efficiency optima can be quickly identified and described for arbitrarily large numbers of junctions, and deviations from current-matched designs can be more easily characterized and understood.

Original language	American English
Pages	268-271
Number of pages	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/PVSC.2017.8366209
State	Published - 2018
Event	2017 IEEE 44th Photovoltaic Specialist Conference (PVSC) - Washington, D.C. Duration: 25 Jun 2017 → 30 Jun 2017

Conference

Conference	2017 IEEE 44th Photovoltaic Specialist Conference (PVSC)
City	Washington, D.C.
Period	25/06/17 → 30/06/17

NREL Publication Number

NREL/CP-5900-67819

Keywords

aluminum-induced crystallization
amorphous
Germanium
photovoltaic cells
thin films

Access to Document

10.1109/PVSC.2017.8366209

Cite this

@conference{5b030851d52b4d72bae9696455838546,

title = "Effect of Atmospheric Absorption Bands on the Optimal Design of Multijunction Solar Cells",

abstract = "The optimization of subcell bandgaps for seriesconnected multijunction solar cells is complicated by atmospheric absorption bands in terrestrial spectra, and this complexity increases with the number of subcells. We systematically characterize the resulting design space, and introduce a taxonomy for MJ cells based upon the position of subcell bandgaps with respect to atmospheric absorption bands. Once this is done, the full set of local efficiency optima can be quickly identified and described for arbitrarily large numbers of junctions, and deviations from current-matched designs can be more easily characterized and understood.",

keywords = "aluminum-induced crystallization, amorphous, Germanium, photovoltaic cells, thin films",

author = "William McMahon and Daniel Friedman and John Geisz",

year = "2018",

doi = "10.1109/PVSC.2017.8366209",

language = "American English",

pages = "268--271",

note = "2017 IEEE 44th Photovoltaic Specialist Conference (PVSC) ; Conference date: 25-06-2017 Through 30-06-2017",

}

TY - CONF

T1 - Effect of Atmospheric Absorption Bands on the Optimal Design of Multijunction Solar Cells

AU - McMahon, William

AU - Friedman, Daniel

AU - Geisz, John

PY - 2018

Y1 - 2018

N2 - The optimization of subcell bandgaps for seriesconnected multijunction solar cells is complicated by atmospheric absorption bands in terrestrial spectra, and this complexity increases with the number of subcells. We systematically characterize the resulting design space, and introduce a taxonomy for MJ cells based upon the position of subcell bandgaps with respect to atmospheric absorption bands. Once this is done, the full set of local efficiency optima can be quickly identified and described for arbitrarily large numbers of junctions, and deviations from current-matched designs can be more easily characterized and understood.

AB - The optimization of subcell bandgaps for seriesconnected multijunction solar cells is complicated by atmospheric absorption bands in terrestrial spectra, and this complexity increases with the number of subcells. We systematically characterize the resulting design space, and introduce a taxonomy for MJ cells based upon the position of subcell bandgaps with respect to atmospheric absorption bands. Once this is done, the full set of local efficiency optima can be quickly identified and described for arbitrarily large numbers of junctions, and deviations from current-matched designs can be more easily characterized and understood.

KW - aluminum-induced crystallization

KW - amorphous

KW - Germanium

KW - photovoltaic cells

KW - thin films

U2 - 10.1109/PVSC.2017.8366209

DO - 10.1109/PVSC.2017.8366209

M3 - Paper

SP - 268

EP - 271

T2 - 2017 IEEE 44th Photovoltaic Specialist Conference (PVSC)

Y2 - 25 June 2017 through 30 June 2017

ER -

Effect of Atmospheric Absorption Bands on the Optimal Design of Multijunction Solar Cells

Abstract

Conference

NREL Publication Number

Keywords

Access to Document

Fingerprint

Cite this