Spectrally Matched Quantum Dot Photoluminescence in GaAs-Si Tandem Luminescent Solar Concentrators

David R. Needell; Colton R. Bukowsky; Sunita Darbe; Haley Bauser; Ognjen Ilic; Harry A. Atwater

doi:10.1109/JPHOTOV.2019.2892075

Spectrally Matched Quantum Dot Photoluminescence in GaAs-Si Tandem Luminescent Solar Concentrators

David R. Needell
, Colton R. Bukowsky
, Sunita Darbe
, Haley Bauser
, Ognjen Ilic
, Harry A. Atwater

Mechanical Engineering

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

15 Scopus citations

Abstract

Luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) can capture both direct and diffuse irradiance via isotropic absorption of waveguide-embedded luminophores. Additionally, LSCs have the potential to reduce the overall cost of a photovoltaic (PV) module by concentrating incident irradiance onto an array of smaller cells. Historically, LSC efficiencies have suffered in part from incomplete light absorption and non-unity quantum yield (QY) of the luminophores. Inorganic quantum dot (QD) luminophores allow the spectral tuning of the absorption and photoluminescence bands, and have near-unity QYs. In a four-terminal tandem LSC module scheme, visible light is trapped within the LSC waveguide and is converted by GaAs cells, and near infrared light is optically coupled to a Si subcell. Here, we investigate the efficiency of a GaAs/Si tandem LSC as a function of luminophore absorption edge and emission wavelength for QD luminophores dispersed in an LSC waveguide with embedded, coplanar GaAs cells. We find that positioning the luminophore absorption edge at 660 nm yields a maximum module power efficiency of approximately 26%, compared with 21% for the non-optimized luminophore and 19% for the bare Si cases.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	8621610
Pages (from-to)	397-401
Number of pages	5
Journal	IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics
Volume	9
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/JPHOTOV.2019.2892075
State	Published - Mar 2019

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Manuscript received September 18, 2018; revised December 1, 2018; accepted December 20, 2018. Date of publication January 22, 2019; date of current version February 18, 2019. This work was supported in part by the Advanced Research Projects Agency under Energy (ARPA-E) under Award DE-AR0000627 and in part by the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) under Award EEC-1041895. (Corresponding author: Harry A. Atwater.) D. R. Needell, C. R. Bukowsky, H. Bauser, O. Ilic, and H. A. Atwater are with the Department of Applied Physics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 USA (e-mail:, [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2011-2012 IEEE.

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 7 Affordable and Clean Energy

Keywords

III-V and concentrator photovoltaic (PV)
Monte Carlo methods
luminescent devices
quantum dots (QDs), tandem PV

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10.1109/JPHOTOV.2019.2892075

https://authors.library.caltech.edu/92577/2/spectrally_matched.pdf

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title = "Spectrally Matched Quantum Dot Photoluminescence in GaAs-Si Tandem Luminescent Solar Concentrators",

abstract = "Luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) can capture both direct and diffuse irradiance via isotropic absorption of waveguide-embedded luminophores. Additionally, LSCs have the potential to reduce the overall cost of a photovoltaic (PV) module by concentrating incident irradiance onto an array of smaller cells. Historically, LSC efficiencies have suffered in part from incomplete light absorption and non-unity quantum yield (QY) of the luminophores. Inorganic quantum dot (QD) luminophores allow the spectral tuning of the absorption and photoluminescence bands, and have near-unity QYs. In a four-terminal tandem LSC module scheme, visible light is trapped within the LSC waveguide and is converted by GaAs cells, and near infrared light is optically coupled to a Si subcell. Here, we investigate the efficiency of a GaAs/Si tandem LSC as a function of luminophore absorption edge and emission wavelength for QD luminophores dispersed in an LSC waveguide with embedded, coplanar GaAs cells. We find that positioning the luminophore absorption edge at 660 nm yields a maximum module power efficiency of approximately 26\%, compared with 21\% for the non-optimized luminophore and 19\% for the bare Si cases.",

keywords = "III-V and concentrator photovoltaic (PV), Monte Carlo methods, luminescent devices, quantum dots (QDs), tandem PV",

author = "Needell, \{David R.\} and Bukowsky, \{Colton R.\} and Sunita Darbe and Haley Bauser and Ognjen Ilic and Atwater, \{Harry A.\}",

note = "Funding Information: Manuscript received September 18, 2018; revised December 1, 2018; accepted December 20, 2018. Date of publication January 22, 2019; date of current version February 18, 2019. This work was supported in part by the Advanced Research Projects Agency under Energy (ARPA-E) under Award DE-AR0000627 and in part by the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) under Award EEC-1041895. (Corresponding author: Harry A. Atwater.) D. R. Needell, C. R. Bukowsky, H. Bauser, O. Ilic, and H. A. Atwater are with the Department of Applied Physics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 USA (e-mail:, [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2011-2012 IEEE.",

year = "2019",

month = mar,

doi = "10.1109/JPHOTOV.2019.2892075",

language = "English (US)",

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AU - Needell, David R.

AU - Bukowsky, Colton R.

AU - Darbe, Sunita

AU - Bauser, Haley

AU - Ilic, Ognjen

AU - Atwater, Harry A.

N1 - Funding Information: Manuscript received September 18, 2018; revised December 1, 2018; accepted December 20, 2018. Date of publication January 22, 2019; date of current version February 18, 2019. This work was supported in part by the Advanced Research Projects Agency under Energy (ARPA-E) under Award DE-AR0000627 and in part by the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) under Award EEC-1041895. (Corresponding author: Harry A. Atwater.) D. R. Needell, C. R. Bukowsky, H. Bauser, O. Ilic, and H. A. Atwater are with the Department of Applied Physics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 USA (e-mail:, [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]). Publisher Copyright: © 2011-2012 IEEE.

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N2 - Luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) can capture both direct and diffuse irradiance via isotropic absorption of waveguide-embedded luminophores. Additionally, LSCs have the potential to reduce the overall cost of a photovoltaic (PV) module by concentrating incident irradiance onto an array of smaller cells. Historically, LSC efficiencies have suffered in part from incomplete light absorption and non-unity quantum yield (QY) of the luminophores. Inorganic quantum dot (QD) luminophores allow the spectral tuning of the absorption and photoluminescence bands, and have near-unity QYs. In a four-terminal tandem LSC module scheme, visible light is trapped within the LSC waveguide and is converted by GaAs cells, and near infrared light is optically coupled to a Si subcell. Here, we investigate the efficiency of a GaAs/Si tandem LSC as a function of luminophore absorption edge and emission wavelength for QD luminophores dispersed in an LSC waveguide with embedded, coplanar GaAs cells. We find that positioning the luminophore absorption edge at 660 nm yields a maximum module power efficiency of approximately 26%, compared with 21% for the non-optimized luminophore and 19% for the bare Si cases.

AB - Luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) can capture both direct and diffuse irradiance via isotropic absorption of waveguide-embedded luminophores. Additionally, LSCs have the potential to reduce the overall cost of a photovoltaic (PV) module by concentrating incident irradiance onto an array of smaller cells. Historically, LSC efficiencies have suffered in part from incomplete light absorption and non-unity quantum yield (QY) of the luminophores. Inorganic quantum dot (QD) luminophores allow the spectral tuning of the absorption and photoluminescence bands, and have near-unity QYs. In a four-terminal tandem LSC module scheme, visible light is trapped within the LSC waveguide and is converted by GaAs cells, and near infrared light is optically coupled to a Si subcell. Here, we investigate the efficiency of a GaAs/Si tandem LSC as a function of luminophore absorption edge and emission wavelength for QD luminophores dispersed in an LSC waveguide with embedded, coplanar GaAs cells. We find that positioning the luminophore absorption edge at 660 nm yields a maximum module power efficiency of approximately 26%, compared with 21% for the non-optimized luminophore and 19% for the bare Si cases.

KW - III-V and concentrator photovoltaic (PV)

KW - Monte Carlo methods

KW - luminescent devices

KW - quantum dots (QDs), tandem PV

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M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85062223795

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VL - 9

SP - 397

EP - 401

JO - IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics

JF - IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics

IS - 2

M1 - 8621610

ER -

Spectrally Matched Quantum Dot Photoluminescence in GaAs-Si Tandem Luminescent Solar Concentrators

Abstract

Bibliographical note

UN SDGs

Keywords

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