Lifting Off Spatial Degeneracy of Functions, Where Does It Lead Us for Photovoltaic Device Systems?

Akira Ishibashi, Yuto Okura and Nobuo Sawamura
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Akira Ishibashi: Research Institute for Electronic Science, Hokkaido University, N20W10 Sapporo, Hokkaido 001-0020, Japan
Yuto Okura: Research Institute for Electronic Science, Hokkaido University, N20W10 Sapporo, Hokkaido 001-0020, Japan
Nobuo Sawamura: Research Institute for Electronic Science, Hokkaido University, N20W10 Sapporo, Hokkaido 001-0020, Japan

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 19, 1-16

Abstract: The defact standard of a solar cell is that electric power generation is made at the same place as photoharvesting is performed, i.e., the function of photoharvesting/photoreception is spatially degenerated with that of electric power generation (photo-electroconversion). Here, in this review paper, we investigate how liberated we are when the degeneracy is lifted off. A conventional concentrator system is, in a sense, a system in which the primary photoharvesting place is decoupled from the photo-conversion part, but is too bulky because the two parts are connected three-dimensionally by photons. We propose a two-dimensional photoreceptor-conversion (2DPRC) scheme in which the photoreception part is spatially decoupled from, but is two-dimensionally connected to the photo-conversion part by a redirection waveguide (RWG). The whole system is in an edge-illumination/photoinjection configuration and concentrator system is quite naturally built, and the edge-injection lift off the trade-off between photo-absorption and photo-carrier collection in the conventional solar cell, leading to a possible high conversion efficiency.

Keywords: two-dimensional photoreceptor-conversion (2DPRC) scheme; concentrator solar cell; high efficiency; redirection waveguide; discrete translational symmetry (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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