FUNDAMENTAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL LIMITS TO LOW-LIGHT EFFICIENCY OF CRYSTALLINE SILICON SOLAR CELLS

摘要

Low-light applications often bring amorphous silicon and other thin-film cell technologies to mind. While there has been work to improve the low-light efficiency of crystalline silicon solar cells, their potential has not been fully described. The description of fundamental limits, and much of the work to realize those limits, has been limited to one-sun illumination levels and higher. This work aims to establish the fundamental Auger limit for wafer-based silicon solar cells at illuminations lower than one-sun, the additional technological limits imposed by surface recombination, shunt resistance, and recombination in the space charge region, and the degree to which low-light potential of these devices had been realized. High efficiencies demonstrate that in choosing technologies for low illuminations, crystalline silicon solar cells should not be overlooked.