06-10-2010, 01:17 PM
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Increasing the Efficiency of Ideal Solar Cells by Photon Induced Transitions
at Intermediate Levels
Antonio Luque and Antonio Martı´
Instituto de Energı´a Solar, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain
(Received 7 February 1997)
Recent attempts have been made to increase the efficiency of solar cells by introducing an impurity
level in the semiconductor band gap. We present an analysis of such a structure under ideal conditions.
We prove that its efficiency can exceed not only the Shockley and Queisser efficiency for ideal
solar cells but also that for ideal two-terminal tandem cells which use two semiconductors, as well
as that predicted for ideal cells with quantum efficiency above one but less than two.
Increasing the Efficiency of Ideal Solar Cells by Photon Induced Transitions
at Intermediate Levels
Antonio Luque and Antonio Martı´
Instituto de Energı´a Solar, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain
(Received 7 February 1997)
Recent attempts have been made to increase the efficiency of solar cells by introducing an impurity
level in the semiconductor band gap. We present an analysis of such a structure under ideal conditions.
We prove that its efficiency can exceed not only the Shockley and Queisser efficiency for ideal
solar cells but also that for ideal two-terminal tandem cells which use two semiconductors, as well
as that predicted for ideal cells with quantum efficiency above one but less than two.