Lattice-mismatched and twisted multi-layered materials for efficient solar cells.

J Phys Condens Matter

Department of Physics, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306-4350, United States of America.

Published: January 2025

We argue that alternating-layer structures of lattice mismatched or misaligned (twisted) atomically-thin layers should be expected to be more efficient absorbers of the broad-spectrum of solar radiation than the bulk material of each individual layer. In such mismatched layer-structures the conduction and valence bands of the bulk material, split into multiple minibands separated by minigaps confined to a small-size emerging Brillouin zone due to band-folding. We extended the Shockley-Queisser approach to calculate the photovoltaic efficiency for a band split into minibands of bandwidth Δand mini-gaps δto model the case when such structures are used as solar cells. We find a significant efficiency enhancement due to impact ionization processes, especially in the limit of small but non-zero δ, and a dramatic increase when fully concentrated Sun-light is used.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1361-648X/adaba7DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

solar cells
8
bulk material
8
lattice-mismatched twisted
4
twisted multi-layered
4
multi-layered materials
4
materials efficient
4
efficient solar
4
cells argue
4
argue alternating-layer
4
alternating-layer structures
4

Similar Publications

A tetragonal NaVPOF coated with reduced graphene oxide (rGO) manifests an outstanding high-rate capability of 90.6 mA h g at 10C and a stable capacity of 41.9 mA h g after 4000 cycles at 30C owing to the enhanced electronic conductivity and improved Zn diffusion capability from the rGO coating.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Organic solar cells (OSCs) are attracting significant attention due to their low cost, lightweight, and flexible nature. The introduction of nonfullerene acceptors (NFAs) has propelled OSC development into a transformative era. However, the limited availability of wide band gap polymer donors for NFAs poses a critical challenge, hindering further advancements.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Microscopy provides a proxy for assessing the operation of perovskite solar cells, yet most works in the literature have focused on bare perovskite thin films, missing charge transport and recombination losses present in full devices. Here we demonstrate a multimodal operando microscopy toolkit to measure and spatially correlate nanoscale charge transport losses, recombination losses and chemical composition. By applying this toolkit to the same scan areas of state-of-the-art, alloyed perovskite cells before and after extended operation, we show that devices with the highest macroscopic performance have the lowest initial performance spatial heterogeneity-a crucial link that is missed in conventional microscopy.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This paper explores the development of an opto-thermal-electrical model for plasmonic Schottky solar cells (PSSCs) using a comprehensive multiphysics approach. We simulated the optical properties, power conversion efficiencies, and energy yield of PSSCs with varying nanoparticle (NP) configurations and sizes. Our spectral analysis focused on the absorption characteristics of these solar cells, examining systems sized 3 × 3, 5 × 5, and 7  × 7, with NP radii ranging from 10 to 150 nm.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

All-perovskite tandem solar cells (APTSCs) offer the potential to surpass the Shockley-Queisser limit of single-junction solar cells at low cost. However, high-performance APTSCs contain unstable methylammonium (MA) cation in the tin-lead (Sn-Pb) narrow bandgap subcells. Currently, MA-free Sn-Pb perovskite solar cells (PSCs) show lower performance compared with their MA-containing counterparts.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!