Semiconductor nanocrystals can respond to absorption of a single photon by producing multiple electron-hole pairs with extremely high efficiencies. This letter analyzes the impact of this carrier-multiplication (CM) phenomenon on power conversion limits of solar cells using detailed-balance considerations that take into account practical values of CM efficiencies measured in experimental studies. For PbSe nanocrystals that exhibit a ca. 3E g CM threshold (E g is the energy gap), the calculated maximum detailed-balance efficiency is 36% in the presence of CM versus 31% in the no-CM case. An increase to 42% is possible if the CM threshold is at its theoretical minimum of 2E g. © 2006 American Institute of Physics.
CITATION STYLE
Klimov, V. I. (2006). Detailed-balance power conversion limits of nanocrystal-quantum-dot solar cells in the presence of carrier multiplication. Applied Physics Letters, 89(12). https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2356314
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