INCREASING THE EFFICIENCY OF A SOLAR CELL

By Hritik Sapra
CONSTRUCTION OF A SOLAR CELL- HOW DOES IT WORK?

Photons striking the semiconductor knock the electrons out and

if this semiconductor is connected to an electric circuit, there is a flow
of charge and electricity is generated.
CONSTRUCTION OF A SOLAR CELL- DIAGRAMMATIC
THE P AND N TYPE SEMICONDUCTORS, ELECTRON HOLES
P type semiconductors are those created by addition of
trivalent impurities such as boron, aluminum or gallium to a
semiconductor. It creates electron deficiency called holes.
N type semiconductors are created by the addition of
pentavalent impurities such as antimony, arsenic or
phosphorous to a semiconductor. It greatly increases the conc.
of electrons.
HOW TO INCREASE QUANTUM EFFICIENCY
Quantum eciency is the ratio of electrons produced to the number
of photons absorbed.
Photovoltaic cells are able to convert sunlight into electricity,
providing enough of the most abundant and cleanest energy to cover
our energy needs. However, the eciency of current photovoltaics is
significantly impeded by the transmission loss of sub-band-gap
photons. Photon upconversion is a promising route to circumvent
this problem by converting these transmitted sub-band-gap photons
into above-band-gap light, where solar cells typically have high
quantum eciency.
How can this be possible? By using Lanthanide-doped nanoparticles.
These particles combine two low energy photons to a higher energy
photon so as to increase the quantum eciency of the solar cell
BAND GAP ENERGY
Band Gap energy of a semiconductor is the minimum energy
required to excite an electron that is stuck in its bound state
into a free state where it can participate in conduction.
When a photon of lower energy strikes the semiconductor all
its energy gets converted into heat thus causing the loss of the
eciency. When a photon of high energy strikes the
semiconductor then excess energy gets covered to heat energy.
How can we prevent this?
We can make solar cells with multiple layers of
semiconductors with dierent band-gap energies so as to
reduce the loss of eciency.
COMPTON SCATTERING EFFECT
Compton scattering, discovered by Arthur Holly Compton, is the
inelastic scattering of a photon by a charged particle, usually an electron.
It results in a decrease in energy (increase in wavelength) of the photon.
This happens with the electrons present in the atmosphere as well as
those in the semiconductor.
We cannot reduce compton scattering in the semi conductor, however,
we can do so in the atmosphere by using inverse Compton eect.
Inverse Compton scattering involves the scattering of low energy
photons to high energies by ultrarelativistic electrons so that the
photons gain and the electrons lose energy. The process is called inverse
because the electrons lose energy rather than the photons, the opposite
of the standard Compton eect.
It takes place when electrons are moving and they ram into the photons
HOW DO WE PROPOSE TO DO IT?
We place the solar panel in a transparent box ,having a
vaccum, emiting high energy beams of electrons from the
top.
As soon as the electrons strike the photons, they lose energy
and the photons gain their energy.
This is a hypothesis as of now, we did not have sucient time
to perform experiments to confirm this theory.
SHADING LOSS PREVENTION USING BYPASS DIODES
One way to minimise the eect shading has on a single
module in a series string, is to use bypass diodes in the
junction box. Bypass diodes allow current to pass around
shaded cells and thereby reduce the voltage losses through
the module. When a module becomes shaded its bypass diode
becomes forward biased and begins to conduct current
through itself. All the current greater than the shaded cells
new short circuit current is bypassed through the diode,
thus reducing drastically the amount of local heating at the
shaded area.

Thank You

- Hritik Sapra