From ： Martin A. Green ， Physica E 14 (2002) 11 –17. Special Research Centre for Third Generation Photovoltaics, University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052, Australia Photovoltaic principles 指導老師：林克默 老師 學 生：陽顯奕 報告日期：

Outline 1. Introduction 2. p–n Junction devices 3. Dye-sensitised cells 4. Conclusion

Bequerel [2] is usually credited as being the first to demonstrate the photovoltaic effect in 1839 by illuminating.Pt electrodes coated with AgCl or AgBr inserted into acidic solution, as in Fig. 1 [3]. Fig. 1. Diagram of apparatus described by Becquerel [2]. Introduction

The next significant development arose when Adams and Day [4] in 1876 were investigating the photoconductive effect in Se. They noted anomalies when Pt contacts were pushed into an Se bar (Fig. 2).This led them to demonstrate that it was possible to start a current in selenium merely by the action of light. Fig. 2. Sample geometry used by Adams and Day [4] for the investigation of the photovoltaic effect in selenium.

This led to the first thin-film Se solar cells being fabricated by Fritts in 1883 [5]. Up until the 1940s,the most efficient photovoltaic devices used either Se,Cu 2 O or T l 2 S as the absorbing layer with a rectifying metal contact as in Fig. 3 [3], a structure very similar to that earlier demonstrated by Fritts. Fig. 3. Structure of the most efficient photovoltaic devices developed during the 1930s.

The first semiconductor p–n junction solar cells were described in 1941 by Russel Ohl of Bell Laboratories[6]. These junctions formed naturally in slowly solidified melts of silicon (Fig. 4). Fig. 4. Silicon solar cell reported in 1941 relying on ‘grown-in’ junctions formed by impurity segregation in recrystallised silicon melts.

One new feature, introduced in 1974, was the use of crystallographic texturing on the top surface, to reduce refection loss. Other features of the fabrication technology largely have been adapted from the standard or hybrid microelectronics Fig. 5. Standard silicon solar cell structure developed in the 1970s.

2. p–n Junction devices Fig. 7. A p–n junction formed by bringing the isolated p- and n-type regions together. Also shown is the corresponding energy-band diagram at thermal equilibrium.

Fig. 8. Effciency loss processes in a p–n junction solar cell: (1)thermalisation loss; (2) junction loss (3) contact loss (4)recombination loss.

In a p–n junction cell, the light absorption and photogenerated carrier transport processes occur side by side throughout the device volume. Dye- sensitised cells [12] exhibit a different mode of operation. Here,absorption occurs at a very specific location at the dye molecules attached to a porous titania medium Fig. 9. Nanocrystalline TiO 2 dye-sensitised solar cell. 3. Dye-sensitised cells

Light absorption prospects are increased by depositing the titania in a porous form that gives a large surface area to be coated with the dye. The liquid solution can also penetrate the pores allowing even the most inaccessible dye molecules to be recharged. Fig. 10. Energy relationships in a nanocrystalline dye cell in region where the titania semiconductor is coated by the dye.

Conclusion Photovoltaics requires the excitation by light of an electron from a ground to an excited state, with some way provided both for selectively extracting excited electrons and for replacing those in the ground state.Reverse radiative recombination processes from the excited to the ground state provide the limits on the conversion efficiency on such a process, although at least double the efficiency of the standard process is possible in principle by extensions to it.

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