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Title: Selection Metric for Photovoltaic Materials Screening Based on Detailed-Balance Analysis

Journal Article · · Physical Review Applied
 [1];  [2]; ORCiD logo [3];  [1]
  1. Julich Research Centre (Germany). IEK5-Photovaltaics
  2. Julich Research Centre (Germany). IEK5-Photovaltaics; Univ. of Duisburg (Germany). Faculty of Engineering, CENIDE
  3. National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

The success of recently discovered absorber materials for photovoltaic applications has been generating increasing interest in systematic materials screening over the last years. However, the key for a successful materials screening is a suitable selection metric that goes beyond the Shockley-Queisser theory that determines the thermodynamic efficiency limit of an absorber material solely by its band-gap energy. Here, we develop a selection metric to quantify the potential photovoltaic efficiency of a material. Our approach is compatible with detailed balance and applicable in computational and experimental materials screening. We use the complex refractive index to calculate radiative and nonradiative efficiency limits and the respective optimal thickness in the high mobility limit. We also compare our model to the widely applied selection metric by Yu and Zunger [Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 068701 (2012)] with respect to their dependence on thickness, internal luminescence quantum efficiency, and refractive index. Finally, the model is applied to complex refractive indices calculated via electronic structure theory.

Research Organization:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) (United States). Center for Next Generation of Materials by Design: Incorporating Metastability (CNGMD)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC36-08GO28308
OSTI ID:
1394735
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1377989
Report Number(s):
NREL/JA-5K00-70169; PRAHB2
Journal Information:
Physical Review Applied, Vol. 8, Issue 2; ISSN 2331-7019
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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