Ab initio calculation of the detailed balance limit to the photovoltaic efficiency of single p-n junction kesterite solar cells

Abstract

The thermodynamic limit of photovoltaic efficiency for a single-junction solar cell can be readily predicted using the bandgap of the active light absorbing material. Such an approach overlooks the energy loss due to non-radiative electron-hole processes. We propose a practical ab initio procedure to determine the maximum efficiency of a thin-film solar cell that takes into account both radiative and non-radiative recombination. The required input includes the frequency-dependent optical absorption coefficient, as well as the capture cross-sections and equilibrium populations of point defects. For kesterite-structured Cu${}_2$ZnSnS${}_4$, the radiative limit is reached for a film thickness of around 2.6 micrometer, where the efficiency gain due to light absorption is counterbalanced by losses due to the increase in recombination current.

5 pages; 3 figures

References in corpus (4)

• First-principles theory of nonradiative carrier capture via multiphonon emission
• Phonon-assisted optical absorption in silicon from first principles
• Upper limit to the photovoltaic efficiency of imperfect crystals
• Pawpyseed: Perturbation-extrapolation band shifting corrections for point defect calculations

Cited by in corpus (3)

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