Multi-junction solar cell
Multi-junction (MJ) solar cells are solar cells with multiple p–n junctions made of different semiconductor materials. Each material’s p-n junction will produce electric current in response to different wavelengths of light. The use of multiple semiconducting materials allows the absorbance of a broader range of wavelengths, improving the cell’s sunlight to electrical energy conversion efficiency.
Traditional single-junction cells have a maximum theoretical efficiency of 33.16%. Theoretically, an infinite number of junctions would have a limiting efficiency of 86.8% under highly concentrated sunlight.
Currently, the best lab examples of traditional crystalline silicon solar cells have efficiencies between 20% and 25%, while lab examples of multi-junction cells have demonstrated performance over 46% under concentrated sunlight. Commercial examples of tandem cells are widely available at 30% under one-sun illumination, and improve to around 40% under concentrated sunlight. However, this efficiency is gained at the cost of increased complexity and manufacturing price. To date, their higher price and higher price-to-performance ratio have limited their use to special roles, notably in aerospace where their high power-to-weight ratio is desirable. In terrestrial applications, these solar cells are emerging in concentrator photovoltaics (CPV), with a growing number of installations around the world.
Tandem fabrication techniques have been used to improve the performance of existing designs. In particular, the technique can be applied to lower cost thin-film solar cells using amorphous silicon, as opposed to conventional crystalline silicon, to produce a cell with about 10% efficiency that is lightweight and flexible. This approach has been used by several commercial vendors, but these products are currently limited to certain niche roles, like roofing materials.
Description
Basics of solar cells
Traditional photovoltaic cells are commonly composed of doped silicon with metallic contacts deposited on the top and bottom. The doping is normally applied to a thin layer on the top of the cell, producing a pn-junction with a particular bandgap energy, Eg.
Photons that hit the top of the solar cell are either reflected or transmitted into the cell. Transmitted photons have the potential to give their energy, hν, to an electron if hν ≥ Eg, generating an electron-hole pair. In the depletion region, the drift electric field Edrift accelerates both electrons and holes towards their respective n-doped and p-doped regions (up and down, respectively). The resulting current Ig is called the generated photocurrent. In the quasi-neutral region, the scattering electric field Escatt accelerates holes (electrons) towards the p-doped (n-doped) region, which gives a scattering photocurrent Ipscatt (Inscatt). Consequently, due to the accumulation of charges, a potential V and a photocurrent Iph appear. The expression for this photocurrent is obtained by adding generation and scattering photocurrents: Iph = Ig + Inscatt + Ipscatt.
The J-V characteristics (J is current density, i.e. current per unit area) of a solar cell under illumination are obtained by shifting the J-V characteristics of a diode in the dark downward by Iph. Since solar cells are designed to supply power and not absorb it, the power P = V•Iph must be negative. Hence, the operating point (Vm, Jm) is located in the region where V>0 and Iph
MJ solar cells and other photovoltaic devices have significant differences (see the table above). Physically, the main property of a MJ solar cell is having more than one pn junction in order to catch a larger photon energy spectrum while the main property of the thin film solar cell is to use thin films instead of thick layers in order to decrease the cost efficiency ratio. As of 2010, MJ solar panels are more expensive than others. These differences imply different applications: MJ solar cells are preferred in space and c-Si solar cells for terrestrial applications.
The efficiencies of solar cells and Si solar technology are relatively stable, while the efficiency of solar modules and multi-junction technology are progressing.
Measurements on MJ solar cells are usually made in laboratory, using light concentrators (this is often not the case for the other cells) and under standard test conditions (STCs). STCs prescribe, for terrestrial applications, the AM1.5 spectrum as the reference. This air mass (AM) corresponds to a fixed position of the sun in the sky of 48° and a fixed power of 833 W/m². Therefore, spectral variations of incident light and environmental parameters are not taken into account under STC.
Consequently, performance of MJ solar cells in terrestrial environment is inferior to that achieved in laboratory. Moreover, MJ solar cells are designed such that currents are matched under STC, but not necessarily under field conditions. One can use QE(λ) to compare performances of different technologies, but QE(λ) contains no information on the matching of currents of subcells. An important comparison point is rather the output power per unit area generated with the same incident light.
Applications
As of 2010, the cost of MJ solar cells was too high to allow use outside of specialized applications. The high cost is mainly due to the complex structure and the high price of materials. Nevertheless, with light concentrators under illumination of at least 400 suns, MJ solar panels become practical.
As less expensive multi-junction materials become available other applications involve bandgap engineering for microclimates with varied atmospheric conditions.
MJ cells are currently being utilized in the Mars rover missions.
The environment in space is quite different. Because there is no atmosphere, the solar spectrum is different (AM0). The cells have a poor current match due to a greater photon flux of photons above 1.87eV vs. those between 1.87eV and 1.42eV. This results in too little current in the GaAs junction, and hampers the overall efficiency since the InGaP junction operates below MPP current and the GaAs junction operates above MPP current. To improve current match, the InGaP layer is intentionally thinned to allow additional photons to penetrate to the lower GaAs layer.
In terrestrial concentrating applications, the scatter of blue light by the atmosphere reduces the photon flux above 1.87eV, better balancing the junction currents. Radiation particles that are no longer filtered can damage the cell. There are two kinds of damage: ionisation and atomic displacement. Still, MJ cells offer higher radiation resistance, higher efficiency and a lower temperature coefficient.
Source from Wikipedia