Abstract
This paper presents a scheme for the enhancement of silicon solar cells in terms of luminescent emission band and photovoltaic performance. The proposed devices are coated with an luminescent down-shifting (LDS) layer comprising three species of europium (Eu)-doped phosphors mixed within a silicate film (SiO2) using a spin-on film deposition. The three species of phosphor were mixed at ratios of 0.5:1:1.5, 1:1:1, or 1.5:1:0.5 in weight percentage (wt %). The total quantity of Eu-doped phosphors in the silicate solution was fixed at 3 wt %. The emission wavelengths of the Eu-doped phosphors were as follows: 518 nm (specie-A), 551 nm (specie-B), and 609 nm (specie-C). We examined the extended luminescent emission bands via photoluminescence measurements at room temperature. Closely matching the luminescent emission band to the high responsivity band of the silicon semiconductor resulted in good photovoltaic performance. Impressive improvements in efficiency were observed in all three samples: 0.5:1:1.5 (20.43%), 1:1:1 (19.67%), 1.5:1:0.5 (16.81%), compared to the control with a layer of pure SiO2 (13.80%).
Highlights
Solar energy is among the most promising forms of renewable energy [1,2]
We investigated silicon solar cells coated with an luminescent down-shifting (LDS) layer comprising SiO2 with three species of Eu-doped phosphor in three weight percentages
This paper describes efforts to enhance the photovoltaic performance of solar cells by coating them with a layer of SiO2 that includes three species of Eu-doped phosphor particles at various weight ratios
Summary
Solar energy is among the most promising forms of renewable energy [1,2]. Currently, wafer-based crystalline silicon solar cells are the mainstay of the photovoltaic industry, with a market share of approximately 85% of the production of photovoltaic devices worldwide [3,4]. The theoretical maximum conversion efficiency of crystalline silicon solar cells with band-gap energy of 1.1 V is just 31%, due to the effects of thermalisation [5], surface recombination [6,7], and spectral loss [8,9,10,11]. The conversion efficiency of crystalline silicon solar cells at ultraviolet-blue (UV–blue) wavelengths remains relatively low due to high surface recombination losses and low responsivity within the UV–blue wavelength band. The absorption of the resulting low-energy photons results in the generation of electron–hole pairs in the solar cell. This means that DC allows for the generation of more than one electron–hole pair from each high-energy photon.
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