PHYS3107 Fundamentals of PV physics

Take-home assignment Week 4

Complete and hand in at the next lecture. Submitted work should be clearly
presented with all working out shown; otherwise your answer will be marked as
incorrect.

1. On the graph of the AM1.5 solar spectrum below, plot where the band gaps
are for the following semiconductors.

a. Silicon
b. Diamond
c. Gallium Arsenide
d. Cadmium Telluride
e. Germanium

Which of the above materials would you recommend for a solar PV
application and why?

2.

(a) What is the optimum bandgap for semi-conductor materials (some
research into the Shockley-Queisser limit may be required)? Has this altered
your answer to the last part of question 1?

3. An n-type silicon substrate at 300K has a donor concentration of
2.731016cm-3.
(a) Determine the concentration of electrons in the conduction band.
(b) Determine the hole concentration in the valence band.
(note: For silicon at 300K, the intrinsic carrier concentration is
1.451010cm-3)

Page 1 of 2

PHYS3107 Fundamentals of PV physics

4. If the substrate in the last question is over doped with an acceptor
concentration of 3.5 1016cm-3, determine the electron and hole
concentrations. Is the resulting material n-type or p-type?

5. (a) Discuss the three main types of recombination that occur in the bulk
of a single-crystal semiconductor.

(b) What type of recombination would be dominant in the following solar

cells (explain why):


(i) Gallium Arsenide solar cell


(ii) Silicon solar cell

(c) What other type of recombination may occur away from the bulk area?

6. Draw a band energy diagram showing the built-in voltage for a p-n
junction under equilibrium, forward bias and reverse bias conditions.

Page 2 of 2