Solar Cell Fundamentals
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Audio podcast
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Category
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Abstract
The modern solar cell was invented at Bell Labs in 1954 and is
currently receiving renewed attention as a potential contribution to
addressing the world's energy challenge. This set of five tutorials
is an introduction to solar cell technology fundamentals. It begins
with a broad overview of solar cells and continues with a discussion
of carrier generation and recombination in silicon solar cells. The
tutorials continue with an overview of solar cell modeling and
simulation. The fourth tutorial discusses thin-film, non-crystalline
solar cells, which promise good efficiencies with low manufacturing
costs. Finally, a much different type of solar cell, the organic,
bulk heterojunction solar cell is discussed to show that all solar
cells can be understand in terms of some very general principles.
Sponsored by
"Electronics from the Bottom Up" is an educational initiative designed to bring a new perspective to the field of nano device engineering. It is co-sponsored by the Intel Foundation and the Network for Computational Nanotechnology.
Cite this work
Researchers should cite this work as follows:
-
Mark Lundstrom; J. L. Gray; Muhammad A. Alam (2011), "Solar Cell Fundamentals," https://nanohub.org/resources/11888.
Location
Burton Morgan 121, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN
Tags
| Lecture Number/Topic | Online Lecture | Video | Lecture Notes | Supplemental Material | Suggested Exercises |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Solar Cells Lecture 1: Introduction to Photovoltaics | View Flash | View | Notes | YouTube |
|
| An introduction to solar cells covering the basics of PN junctions,
optical absorption, and IV characteristics. Key technology options and economic considers are briefly presented. |
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| Solar Cells Lecture 2: Physics of Crystalline Solar Cells | View Flash | View | Notes | YouTube |
|
| Solar cell performance is determined by generation and recombination of electron-hole pairs. This tutorial focussing on recombination losses in crystalline silicon solar cells under short-circuit … |
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| Solar Cells Lecture 3: Modeling and Simulation of Photovoltaic Devices and Systems | View Flash | View | Notes | YouTube |
|
| Modeling and simulation play an important role in designing and
optimizing PV systems. This tutorial is a broad overview of the topic
including a look at detailed, numerical device simulation. |
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| Solar Cells Lecture 4: What is Different about Thin-Film Solar Cells? | View Flash | View | Notes | YouTube |
|
| Thin film solar cells promise acceptable efficiency at low cost. This
tutorial examines the device physics of thin-film solar cells, which
generally require a different type of analysis than … |
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| Solar Cells Lecture 5: Organic Photovoltaics | View Flash | View | Notes | YouTube |
|