FROM THE HOT CARRIER SOLAR CELL TO THE INTERMEDIATE BAND SOLAR CELL, PASSING THROUGH THE MULTIPLE-EXCITON GENERATION SOLAR CELL AND THEN BACK TO THE HOT CARRIER SOLAR CELL: THE DANCE OF THE ELECTRO-CHEMICAL POTENTIALS

摘要

Hot carrier solar cells, multiple exciton generation solar cells and intermediate band solar cells have more in common that it would first appear. In this paper we describe the theoretical framework that all these concepts share and how one type of solar cell can lead to another by removing or adding some of the working hypotheses. In this context, the electrochemical potentials play a fundamental role since, for example, a hot carrier solar cell can be regarded as a solar cell with an infinite number of quasi-Fermi levels while the intermediate band solar cell can be regarded as a solar cell with three quasi-Fermi levels but that can be made back to approach the hot carrier solar cell as the number of "intermediate bands" increases.