Excellent properties of cylindrical quantum dots for the design of hot-carrier assisted IBSCs with appropriate ESCs

摘要

In this research work, hot carrier assisted intermediate band solar cells consisting of an absorber based on cylindrical silicon quantum dots (CQDs) with appropriate energy selective contacts (ESCs) are evaluated. Cylindrical shape nanoparticles benefit from two degrees of freedom (radius and height) to control their optical properties. First, the output performance parameters of a hot carrier solar cell with energy selective contacts based on quantum wells (QWs) and CQDs are compared. Then an array of CQDs is simulated and it is investigated that their optical properties can be tuned by controlling their heights, radii, and interdot spaces. A solar cell with ESCs based on CQDs results in better efficiency than a cell with ESCs based on QWs. An array of silicon CQDs inside a silicon carbide is analyzed and using the quantum confinement effect, an appropriate absorber was designed. The absorption coefficient for CQDs was calculated and the effect of their heights, radii, and inter dot spaces was analyzed. The key parameters are optimally designed which leads to obtaining a high absorption coefficient and consequently, the improvement of photocurrent of a hot carrier assisted intermediate band solar cell.