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Solar Photovoltaic

Physics

Basic Physics and


Materials Science of Solar
Cells
Original Presentation by J. M. Pearce, 2006
Email: profpearce@gmail.com
What are
Photovoltaics?
• Photovoltaic (PV) systems convert light
energy directly into electricity.
• Commonly known as “solar cells.”
• The simplest systems power the small
calculators we use every day. More
complicated systems will provide a large
portion of the electricity in the near future.
• PV represents one of the most promising means of
maintaining our energy intensive standard of
living while not contributing to global warming
and pollution.
A Brief History
Photovoltaic Technology
• 1839 – Photovoltaic effect discovered by Becquerel.
• 1870s – Hertz developed solid selenium PV (2%).
• 1905 – Photoelectric effect explained by A. Einstein.
• 1930s – Light meters for photography commonly employed
cells of copper oxide or selenium.
• 1954 – Bell Laboratories developed the first crystalline
silicon cell (4%).
• 1958 – PV cells on the space satellite U.S. Vanguard
(better than expected).
Things Start
To Get Interesting...
• mid 1970s – World energy crisis = millions spent in research and
development of cheaper more efficient solar cells.
• 1976 – First amorphous silicon cell developed by Wronski and Carlson.
• 1980’s - Steady progress towards higher efficiency and many new
types introduced
• 1990’s - Large scale production of solar cells more than 10% efficient
with the following materials:
– Ga-As and other III-V’s
– CuInSe2 and CdTe
– TiO2 Dye-sensitized
– Crystalline, Polycrystalline, and Amorphous Silicon
• Today prices continue to drop and new “3rd generation” solar
cells are researched.
Types of Solar
Photovoltaic Materials
Photovoltaic Materials
Electronic Structure of
Semiconductors
• Silicon
• Group 4 elemental
semiconductor
• Silicon crystal forms
the diamond lattice
• Resulting in the use
of four valence
electrons of each
silicon atom.
Crystalline
Silicon

Amorphous Silicon
Solar PV Materials:
Crystalline & Polycrystalline Silicon
• Advantages:
– High Efficiency (14-22%)
– Established technology
(The leader)
– Stable
• Disadvantages:
– Expensive production
– Low absorption coefficient
– Large amount of highly
purified feedstock
Amorphous Silicon
Advantages:
• High absorption (don’t need a lot
of material)
• Established technology
• Ease of integration into buildings
• Excellent ecological balance
sheet
• Cheaper than the glass, metal, or
plastic you deposit it on
Disadvantages:
• Only moderate stabilized efficiency 7-
10%
• Instability- It degrades when light hits it
– Now degraded steady state
How do they work?

The physics
view
Band Theory
• There are 3 types of
materials in Band
Ef Theory, which are
differentiated by their
Ef Eg electronic structure:
Ef
– insulators,
– conductors, and
Metal Insulator Semiconductor – semiconductors.
Energy Bands in a
Semiconductor
• Conducti
on Band
– Ec –
empty
• Valence
Band – Ev
– full of
electrons
3 Types of
Semiconductors
1. Intrinsic
2. n-type
3. p-type

• Types 2 and 3 are semiconductors


that conduct electricity - How?
– by alloying semiconductor with an
impurity, also known as doping
– carriers placed in conduction band or
carriers removed from valence band.
Note: Color Protocol
Type 1: Intrinsic
• Pure semiconductor
(intrinsic): contains the right
number of electrons to fill
valence band, therefore,
conduction band is empty.
• Because electrons in full
valence cannot move, the
pure semiconductor acts like
an insulator.
Type 2: n-Type
• n-type: current is carried by
negatively charged
electrons - How?
– group 5 impurity atoms
added to silicon melt from
which is crystal is grown
– 4/5 of outer electrons used to
fill valence band
– 1/5 left is then put into Within conduction
conduction band. These band the electrons
impurity atoms are called are moving,
donors. therefore, crystal
becomes a
conductor
Type 3: p-Type
• p-Type: current carried by
missing electron holes which
act as positively charged
particles. How?
– group 3 added to silicon melt
– need 4 out of 5 outer electrons
but doping creates lack of
electrons in valence band.
– missing electrons, a.k.a holes,
are used to carry current.
What Carries the
Current?
• Prevailing charges are called the majority
carriers
– prevailing charge carrier in n-type: electrons
– prevailing charge carrier in p-type: holes
Creating a Junction

• There are four main types of


semiconductor junctions
– p-n
– p-i-n
– Schottcky barrier
– Heterojunction
• Each has a built in potential
p-n and p-i-n Junctions

Vbi Vbi

Ef Ef
Schottky Barriers and
Heterojunctions
Semiconductor
Junctions
• All the junctions contain strong electric field
• How does the electric field occur?
– When two semiconductors come into contact,
electrons near interface from n-type, transfer
over to p-type, leaving a positively charged area
– Holes from p-type by interface transfer over to n-
type leaving a negatively charged area.
– Because electrons and holes are swapped, a
middle potential barrier with no mobile charges,
is formed.
– This potential barrier created does not let any
more electrons or holes flow through.
• Electric field pulls electrons and holes in
opposite directions.
Barrier Changes
• Equilibrium means there
is no net current
• Reduced barrier height is
called forward bias
(positive voltage applied to
p-side)
– Result- increases current
through diode
• Increased barrier height is
called reverse bias.
– Result- decreases current to a
very small amount..
Electric Currents in p-n
Junction Under External Bias

Diode I-V Characteristics


Current in a Solar Cell
• Output current = I = Il-Io [ exp(qV/kT)-1]
– Il=light generated current
– q = electric charge
– V = voltage
– k = Boltzman’s constant = 1.3807 × 10-23 J/K
• When in open circuit (I=0) all light generated
current passes through diode
• When in short circuit (V=0) all current passes
through external load
2 Important points:
1) During open circuit the voltage of open circuit,
Voc = (kT/q) ln( Il/Io +1)
2) No power is generated under short and open
circuit - but Pmax = VmIm=FFVoc Isc
I-V Curve for Solar Cells

Fourth quadrant (i.e., power quadrant) of the illuminated I-


V characteristic defining fill factor (FF) and identifying Jsc
and Voc
Light Absorption by a
Semiconductor
• Photovoltaic energy relies on light.
• Light → stream of photons → carries energy
• Example: On a clear day 4.4x1017 photons hit
1 m2 of Earth’s surface every second.
• Eph(λ )=hc/λ =hf
h = plank’s constant = 6.625 x 10-34 J-s
λ = wavelength
c = speed of light =3 x 108 m/s
f = frequency
• However, only photons with energy in excess
of bandgap can be converted into electricity
by solar cells.
The Solar Spectrum

The entire spectrum is


not available to single
junction solar cell
Generation of Electron
Hole Pairs with Light
• Photon enters, is absorbed,
and lets electron from VB
get sent up to CB
• Therefore a hole is left
behind in VB, creating
absorption process:
electron-hole pairs.
• Because of this, only part of
solar spectrum can be
converted.
• The photon flux converted
by a solar cell is about 2/3
of total flux.
Generation Current
• Generation Current = light induced electrons
across bandgap as electron current
• Electron current:= Ip=qNA
– N = # of photons in highlighted area of spectrum
– A = surface area of semiconductor that’s exposed
to light
• Because there is current from light, voltage can also
occur.
• Electric power can occur by separating the electrons
and holes to the terminals of device.
• Electrostatic energy of charges occurs after
separation only if its energy is less than the energy of
the electron-hole pair in semiconductor
• Therefore Vmax=Eg/q
• Vmax= bandgap of semiconductor is in EV’s,
therefore this equation shows that wide bandgap
semiconductors produce higher voltage.
Direct vs Indirect
Bandgap
• Everything just talked about, where all
energy in excess of bandgap of photons
are absorbed, are called direct-bandgap
semiconductors.
• More complicated absorption process is
the indirect-gap series
– quantum of lattice vibrations, of crystalline
silicon, are used in the conversion of a
photon into electron-hole pair to conserve
momentum there hindering the process
and decreasing the absorption of light by
semiconductor.
The Solar Cell
• Electric current generated in semiconductor is extracted
by contacts to the front and rear of cell.
• Widely spaced thin strips (fingers) are created so that
light is allowed through.
– these fingers supply current to the larger bus bar.

• Antireflection
coating (ARC) is
used to cover the
cell to minimize
light reflection from
top surface.
• ARC is made with
thin layer of
dielectric material.
Different Types of
Photovoltaic Solar Cells
Diffusion
Drift
Excitonic
Diffusion

• n-type and p-type are


aligned by the Fermi-
level
• When a photon comes in
n-type, it takes the place
of a hole, the hole acts
like an air bubble and
“floats” up to the p-type
• When the photon comes
to the p-type, it takes
place of an electron, the
electron acts like a steel
ball and “rolls” down to
the n-type
Diagram of p-n Junction and
Resultant Band Structure
Drift
• There is an intrinsic
gap where the
photon is absorbed
in and causes the
electron hole pair to
form.
• The electron rises
up to the top and
drifts downwards (to
n-type)
• The hole drifts
upwards (to p-type)
Excitonic Solar Cell

• Dye molecule
– electron hole pair
splits because it
hits the dye
– the electron shifts
over to the electric
conductor and the
hole shifts to the
hole conductor
Power
Losses in
Solar
Cells
Recombination
• Opposite of carrier generation,
where electron-hole pair is
annihilated
• Most common at:
– impurities
– defects of crystal structure
– surface of semiconductor
• Reducing both voltage and current
Series Resistance

• Losses of resistance caused by


transmission of electric current
produced by the solar cell.
• I-V characteristic of device:
• I = Il-I0 [exp(qV+IRs / mkT) – 1]
• m= nonideality factor
Other Losses
• Current losses- called collection
efficiency, ratio b/w number of carriers
generated by light by number that
reaches the junction.
• Temperature dependence of voltage
– V decreases as T increases
• Other losses
– light reflection from top surface
– shading of cell by top contacts
– incomplete absorption of light
Minimize Recombination Losses
by Adapting the Device
Tandem Cells
Silver Grid
• Tandem cell-
several cells,
Indium Tin Oxide
p-a-Si:H
Blue Cell
– Top cell has
i-a-Si:H
n-a-Si:H
large bandgap
p
Green Cell – Middle cell mid
i-a-SiGe:H (~15%)
n
eV bandgap
p
Red Cell – Bottom cell
i-a-SiGe:H (~50%)
n small bandgap.
Textured Zinc Oxide

Silver
Stainless Steel Substrate

Schematic diagram of state-of-


the-art a-Si:H based substrate n-
i-p triple junction cell structure.
Solar Photovoltaics
is the Future
Acknowledgements
• This is the first in a series of presentations created
for the solar energy community to assist in the
dissemination of information about solar
photovoltaics.
• This work was supported from a grant from the
Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education.
• The author would like to acknowledge assistance
in creation of this presentation from Heather
Zielonka, Scott Horengic and Jennifer Rockage.

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