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Seems the Berkley National Laboratory - Solar Energy Materials Research Group is closing in on a practical way to manufacture solar cells that convert a wide range of wavelengths into electricity, in this case from IR to UV. This could make for a helluva gain in efficiency.
The Practical Full-Spectrum Solar Cell Comes Closer
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Although full-spectrum solar cells have been made, none yet have been suitable for manufacture at a consumer-friendly price. Now Wladek Walukiewicz, who leads the Solar Energy Materials Research Group in the Materials Sciences Division (MSD) at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), and his colleagues have demonstrated a solar cell that not only responds to virtually the entire solar spectrum, it can also readily be made using one of the semiconductor industry’s most common manufacturing techniques.
The new design promises highly efficient solar cells that are practical to produce. The results are reported in a recent issue of Physical Review Letters, available online to subscribers.
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The new solar cell material from Walukiewicz and Yu and their colleagues in Berkeley Lab’s MSD and RoseStreet Labs Energy, working with Sumika Electronics Materials in Phoenix, Arizona, is another multiband semiconductor made from a highly mismatched alloy. In this case the alloy is gallium arsenide nitride, similar in composition to one of the most familiar semiconductors, gallium arsenide. By replacing some of the arsenic atoms with nitrogen, a third, intermediate energy band is created. The good news is that the alloy can be made by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD), one of the most common methods of fabricating compound semiconductors.
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The results of the test showed that light penetrating the blocked device efficiently yielded current from all three energy bands – valence to intermediate, intermediate to conduction, and valence to conduction – and responded strongly to all parts of the spectrum, from infrared with an energy of about 1.1 electron volts (1.1 eV), to over 3.2 eV, well into the ultraviolet.
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With the new, multiband photovoltaic device based on gallium arsenide nitride, the research team has demonstrated a simple solar cell that responds to virtually the entire solar spectrum – and can readily be made using one of the semiconductor industry’s most common manufacturing techniques. The results promise highly efficient solar cells that are practical to produce.
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Although full-spectrum solar cells have been made, none yet have been suitable for manufacture at a consumer-friendly price. Now Wladek Walukiewicz, who leads the Solar Energy Materials Research Group in the Materials Sciences Division (MSD) at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), and his colleagues have demonstrated a solar cell that not only responds to virtually the entire solar spectrum, it can also readily be made using one of the semiconductor industry’s most common manufacturing techniques.
The new design promises highly efficient solar cells that are practical to produce. The results are reported in a recent issue of Physical Review Letters, available online to subscribers.
>
The new solar cell material from Walukiewicz and Yu and their colleagues in Berkeley Lab’s MSD and RoseStreet Labs Energy, working with Sumika Electronics Materials in Phoenix, Arizona, is another multiband semiconductor made from a highly mismatched alloy. In this case the alloy is gallium arsenide nitride, similar in composition to one of the most familiar semiconductors, gallium arsenide. By replacing some of the arsenic atoms with nitrogen, a third, intermediate energy band is created. The good news is that the alloy can be made by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD), one of the most common methods of fabricating compound semiconductors.
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The results of the test showed that light penetrating the blocked device efficiently yielded current from all three energy bands – valence to intermediate, intermediate to conduction, and valence to conduction – and responded strongly to all parts of the spectrum, from infrared with an energy of about 1.1 electron volts (1.1 eV), to over 3.2 eV, well into the ultraviolet.
>
With the new, multiband photovoltaic device based on gallium arsenide nitride, the research team has demonstrated a simple solar cell that responds to virtually the entire solar spectrum – and can readily be made using one of the semiconductor industry’s most common manufacturing techniques. The results promise highly efficient solar cells that are practical to produce.
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