A Silicon Ratchet to Produce Power from Below-Bandgap Photons

Lau, Bryan; Kedem, Ofer; Kodaimati, Mohamad; Ratner, Mark A.; Weiss, Emily A.

doi:10.1002/aenm.201701000

A Silicon Ratchet to Produce Power from Below-Bandgap Photons

Journal Article · Tue Aug 22 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Advanced Energy Materials

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201701000· OSTI ID:1469980

Lau, Bryan ^[1]; Kedem, Ofer ^[1]; Kodaimati, Mohamad ^[1]; Ratner, Mark A. ^[1]; ^[1]

Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)

Our work computationally demonstrates a new photovoltaic mechanism that generates power from incoherent, below-bandgap (THz) excitations of conduction band electrons in silicon. A periodic sawtooth potential, realized through elastic strain gradients along a 100 nm thick Si slab, biases the oscillatory motion of excited electrons, which preferentially jump and relax into the adjacent period on the right to generate a net current. The magnitude of the ratchet current increases with photon energy (20, 50, and 100 meV) and irradiance (≈MW cm^–2), which control the probability of photon scattering, and peaks as a function of the well depth of the ratchet potential, and the dominant mode of energy loss (the 62 meV intervalley phonon). The internal power conversion efficiency of the ratchet has a maximum of 0.0083% at a photon energy of 100 meV, due to inefficiencies caused by isotropic scattering. This new photovoltaic mechanism uses wasted below-bandgap absorptions to enhance the directional diffusion of charge carriers and could be utilized to augment the efficiency of traditional photovoltaics.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States). Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC) Center for Bio-Inspired Energy Science (CBES)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0000989

OSTI ID:: 1469980

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1375821

Journal Information:: Advanced Energy Materials, Journal Name: Advanced Energy Materials Journal Issue: 22 Vol. 7; ISSN 1614-6832

Publisher:: WileyCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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A Silicon Ratchet to Produce Power from Below-Bandgap Photons

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