Super-Multi-Junction Solar Cells-Device Configuration with the Potential for More Than 50% Annual Energy Conversion Efficiency (Non-Concentration)
APPLIED SCIENCES-BASEL
Authors: Araki, Kenji; Ota, Yasuyuki; Saiki, Hiromu; Tawa, Hiroki; Nishioka, Kensuke; Yamaguchi, Masafumi
Abstract
The highest-efficiency solar cell in the efficiency race does not always give the best annual energy yield in real world solar conditions because the spectrum is always changing. The study of radiative coupling of concentrator solar cells implies that efficiency could increase by recycling the radiative recombination generated by the surplus current in the upper junction. Such a configuration is called a super-multi-junction cell. We expand the model in the concentrator solar cell to a non-concentrating installation. It is shown that this super-multi-junction cell configuration is robust and can keep maximum potential efficiency (50% in realistic spectrum fluctuation) for up to 10 junctions. The super-multi-junction cell is also robust in the bandgap engineering of each junction. Therefore, a future multi-junction may not be required for tuning the bandgap to match the standard solar spectrum, as well as relying upon artificial technologies such as epitaxial lift-off (ELO), wafer-bonding, mechanical-stacking, and reverse-growth, but merely uses upright and lattice-matching growth technologies. We present two challenging techniques; one is the optical cap layer that may be the directional photon coupling layer in the application of the photonics technologies, and another is the high-quality epitaxial growth with almost 100% radiative efficiency.
Accurate Solution for Surface Integral Equations with Sharp-corner Objects Based on Nystrom Scheme
2019 PHOTONICS & ELECTROMAGNETICS RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM - FALL (PIERS - FALL)
Authors: Xu, Qing; Zhao, Ge; Tong, Mei Song
Abstract
The electromagnetic (EM) problems with conducting objects can be described by surface integral equations (SIEs). Traditionally, the SIEs are solved by the method of moments (MoM). As an alternative method, the Nystrom scheme is proposed, which does not require any basis and testing functions and does not require conforming meshes, leading to much convenience in numerical implementations. Although the Nystrom scheme has been widely used to solve various EM problems, it seldom dealt with the problems with highly sharp-corner objects and we present a robust solution method in this paper. To deal with the singularity, the closed-form formulas have been derived for evaluating singular integrals in the Cauchy-principal-value (CPV) sense. Two numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the scheme and good results have been obtained.