Solar cell efficiency improvement employing down-shifting silicon quantum dots

Rosendo Lopez-Delgado*, H. J. Higuera-Valenzuela, A. Zazueta-Raynaud, A. Ramos-Carrazco, J. E. Pelayo, D. Berman-Mendoza, M. E. Álvarez-Ramos, Arturo Ayon

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

25 Scopus citations

Abstract

We report the synthesis and characterization of silicon quantum dots (Si-QDs) that exhibit down-shifting, photo-luminescent characteristics, and the dependence of luminescent characteristics on sodium l-ascorbate, APTES and the reaction time. The synthesized silicon nanostructures were observed to absorb UV photons and subsequently reemit in a broad visible region extending from 450 to 650 nm. The incorporation of these nanostructures as a photon down-shifting layer on solar cells triggered improvements in the performance of the fabricated photovoltaic devices, especially in the open circuit voltage (Voc) and short circuit current density (Jsc). Specifically, the experimental results showed increments in the Voc from 532.6 to 536.2 mV and in the Jsc from 33.4 to 38.3 mA/cm2. The combined effect of those improved Voc and Jsc values led to an increment in the power conversion efficiency (PCE) from 11.9 to 13.4%. This increment represents an improvement of the order of 12.4% on the power conversion efficiency on the silicon solar cells employed. The observed results could be conducive to promoting the proliferation of photovoltaic structures. Additionally, we discuss the fabrication and characterization of the single crystal Silicon (c-Si) Solar cells employed in this exercise.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)495-502
Number of pages8
JournalMicrosystem Technologies
Volume24
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jan 2018

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2017, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

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