Valley Photovoltaics and the Search for the Hot Carrier Solar Cell
- Resource Type
- Conference
- Authors
- Ferry, David K.; Goodnick, Stephen M.; Sellers, Ian R.; Whiteside, Vincent R.
- Source
- 2020 47th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC) Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC), 2020 47th IEEE. :0498-0501 Jun, 2020
- Subject
- Aerospace
Components, Circuits, Devices and Systems
Engineered Materials, Dielectrics and Plasmas
Photonics and Electrooptics
Power, Energy and Industry Applications
Hot carriers
Indium gallium arsenide
Photovoltaic cells
Indium phosphide
III-V semiconductor materials
Lattices
Photovoltaic systems
solar cells
valley photovoltaics
hot carriers
- Language
In order to achieve a hot carrier solar cell, one must: (a) prevent significant energy loss to phonons; and (b) extract primarily the hot carriers. We have recently suggested a new approach to these problems by using metastable upper energy levels to store the photogenerated carriers. A proof of concept cell based upon an InGaAs/InAlAs structure has yielded encouraging results that suggest that valley storage is occurring and yielding a $V_{OC} > E_{G}$. Current output, however, is restricted apparently due to a barrier between the L valleys in the two materials. New materials may provide the solution to this problem and lead to a new HCSC with greatly enhanced efficiency.