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Photoluminescent Effects on the Temperature Coefficient of Multi-Junction Solar Cells

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 March 2013

Alaeddine Mokri  and
Mahieddine Emziane
Alaeddine Mokri*
Affiliation:
Solar Energy Materials and Devices Laboratory, Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, Masdar City, PO Box 54224, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Mahieddine Emziane*
Affiliation:
Solar Energy Materials and Devices Laboratory, Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, Masdar City, PO Box 54224, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
*
1Corresponding authors: amokri@masdar.ac.ae
2memziane@masdar.ac.ae
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Abstract

In this work, we re-evaluate the temperature coefficient in multi-junction solar cells by including the effects of radiative coupling (i.e. re-absorption of emitted photons within the cell) and eliminating radiative losses towards the substrate (i.e. use of a back mirror). The model developed is for two-junction devices, and it takes into account: the number of terminals, the energy bandgaps of the sub-cells, the light concentration, and whether a back mirror is used or not. The temperature coefficients obtained are compared with the case where no luminescent effects are considered. The results show that, in two-terminal and four-terminal devices, the sensitivity to temperature is almost the same whether luminescent effects are taken into account or not. However, these effects are most significant in three-terminal devices. In four-terminal devices, the results show that these effects depend to a large extent on the materials used, the design of the system, i.e. on the effectiveness of radiative exchange between the cells involved.

Keywords

thermionic emissionphotovoltaicenergy generation
Type
Articles
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 1493: Symposium E/H – Photovoltaic Technologies, Devices and Systems Based on Inorganic Materials, Small Organic Molecules and Hybrids , 2013 , pp. 77 - 84
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2013 

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References

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