The Shockley-Queisser paper - A notable example of a scientific sleeping beauty

Abstract

A paper by William B. Shockley and Hans-Joachim Queisser was published in the Journal of Applied Physics In 1961. It discussed a fundamental limit on the conversion of sunlight into electrical current. The 'Shockley-Queisser limit' describes the limited efficiency of solar cells on the basis of absorption and reemission processes. Since around 2000, the S&Q paper has been cited increasingly often, and has now amassed between 1,500 and 3,900 citations, depending on the database. The citations of the S&Q paper developed synchronously with the rapidly growing solar cell and photovoltaic research area and its publication output. However, the rapid growth of scientific literature overall since around 1960 must be taken into account when considering time curves of this nature.