Four-junction spectral beam-splitting photovoltaic receiver with high optical efficiency

A spectral beam‐splitting architecture is shown to provide an excellent basis for a four junction photovoltaic receiver with a virtually ideal band gap combination. Spectrally selective beam‐splitters are used to create a very efficient light trap in form of a 45° parallelepiped. The light trap dist...

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Veröffentlicht in:Progress in photovoltaics 2011-01, Vol.19 (1), p.61-72
Hauptverfasser: Mitchell, Bernhard, Peharz, Gerhard, Siefer, Gerald, Peters, Marius, Gandy, Tobias, Goldschmidt, Jan Christoph, Benick, Jan, Glunz, Stefan W., Bett, Andreas W., Dimroth, Frank
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Sprache:eng
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Zusammenfassung:A spectral beam‐splitting architecture is shown to provide an excellent basis for a four junction photovoltaic receiver with a virtually ideal band gap combination. Spectrally selective beam‐splitters are used to create a very efficient light trap in form of a 45° parallelepiped. The light trap distributes incident radiation onto the different solar cells with an optical efficiency of more then 90%. Highly efficient solar cells including III–V semiconductors and silicon were fabricated and mounted into the light trapping assembly. An integrated characterization of such a receiver including the measurement of quantum efficiency as well as indoor and outdoor I–V measurements is shown. Moreover, the optical loss mechanisms and the optical efficiency of the spectral beam‐splitting approach are discussed. The first experimental setup of the receiver demonstrated an outdoor efficiency of more than 34% under unconcentrated sunlight. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. A photovoltaic receiver using the geometry of a 45°‐parallelepiped to realize a light trapping, spectral beam‐splitting architecture that includes three solar cells and two beam‐splitters is presented. The receiver splits the solar spectrum into smaller energy parts and converts each of these parts with a solar cell of an appropriate band gap. The paper discusses band gap engineering, optical design and shows extended characterization data of the receiver including the used beam splitters and solar cells.
ISSN:1062-7995
1099-159X
1099-159X
DOI:10.1002/pip.988