TY - GEN
T1 - Thermodynamic efficiency of nanoscale photovoltaics
AU - Niv, A.
AU - Gharghi, M.
AU - Zhang, X.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© OSA 2012.
PY - 2012/11/11
Y1 - 2012/11/11
N2 - Current views of photovoltaic efficiency adopt a ray perspective of light and therefore cannot be applied to devices with sophisticated light coupling mechanisms, where phenomena from the realm of near field optics prevail. We use the fluctuation dissipation theorem to derive a thermodynamic estimation of the electromagnetic source strength within a semiconductor. This allows for a photovoltaic efficiency calculation that considers the full vectorial wave nature of light. The approach is demonstrated by analyzing the performance of a model solar cell down to thicknesses of few nanometers. The effect of near field optics on the performance of the device is highlighted.
AB - Current views of photovoltaic efficiency adopt a ray perspective of light and therefore cannot be applied to devices with sophisticated light coupling mechanisms, where phenomena from the realm of near field optics prevail. We use the fluctuation dissipation theorem to derive a thermodynamic estimation of the electromagnetic source strength within a semiconductor. This allows for a photovoltaic efficiency calculation that considers the full vectorial wave nature of light. The approach is demonstrated by analyzing the performance of a model solar cell down to thicknesses of few nanometers. The effect of near field optics on the performance of the device is highlighted.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84893135561&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1364/e2.2012.jt5a.2
DO - 10.1364/e2.2012.jt5a.2
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85012106677
T3 - Optics InfoBase Conference Papers
BT - Optical Instrumentation for Energy and Environmental Applications, E2 2012
PB - Optical Society of America (OSA)
T2 - Optical Instrumentation for Energy and Environmental Applications, E2 2012
Y2 - 11 November 2012 through 14 November 2012
ER -