Abstract
Photovoltaic conversion has made impressive progress since its discovery, but as will be discussed here, much can still be done. It is of interest to investigate what are the intrinsic limits of the technology. We call here ultimate performance those that could be limited only by intrinsic properties of the devices. This point will be discussed along three lines: ultimate limits for energy conversion, ultimate limits for material usage and ultimate limits for device stability.
Highlights
Progress have been made on conversion efficiency, Figure 1: Solar cell operation. (a) A solar cell absorbs the light from the sun and emits electrons in the external circuit, the load, while excess energy is rejected in the ambient. (b) Energy diagram of an operating solar cell: an absorbed photon promotes an electron from valence to conduction band (A), the excess energy is dissipated (B) and some potential energy, that depends on the operating voltage V, can be collected (C)
I will not discuss them further here, but will rather discuss another question: can we define some intrinsic limitations to photovoltaic conversion, and if so, which? By intrinsic, I mean that are deeply rooted in physics, and would not depend on the specifics of the operation conditions
When looking closely to the physics of solar cells, quite general conclusions could be made on intrinsic possibilities offered by this category of energy conversion devices, and what could be achieved
Summary
(b) Energy diagram of an operating solar cell: an absorbed photon promotes an electron from valence to conduction band (A), the excess energy is dissipated (B) and some potential energy, that depends on the operating voltage V, can be collected (C). As p/n junctions, widely used for this application, are kinetically stable, but not intrinsically stable, it is an open question whether that would set a limitation on the time of use of solar cells.
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