Institute of Microelectronics of Chinese Academy of Sciences (IME) has made a breakthrough in high efficiency crystal silicon solar cell research based on down-conversion theory.
Crystal silicon solar cell takes 78% market share in photovoltaic renewable energy industry, and its domination is believed to continue for another 10 to 15 years. But it leaves much to be desired to exceed the Shockley–Queisser limit and to highly improve the utilization rate of solar energy.
Bearing this in mind, JIA Rui and his colleagues from Microwave Devices and Integrated Circuits Department of IME had been researching into down-conversion crystal silicon solar cell based on semiconductor nanomaterials and took the lead in this regard in China.
So far JIA and his colleagues have developed a new type of semiconductor nanomaterial whose width can be adjusted based on its quantum confinement effect. Combining this new nanomaterial with industrial used 125mm×125mm crystal silicon substrate, they achieved the down-conversion crystal silicon solar cell with high efficiency. Test results showed that in the wave band of 300-630nm, the cell’s light absorption and utilization had been boosted a lot, and that the scale of its spectral response had been increased by 10%, which meant the quality of the cell had been highly improved.
The research results were reported at the 2nd Sino-EU International Solar PV Industrial Development Forum in August 2010.