Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Comment
  • Published:

Selecting tandem partners for silicon solar cells

Nature Energy volume 1, Article number: 16137 (2016) Cite this article

Subjects

Combining silicon and other materials in tandem solar cells is one approach to enhancing the overall power conversion efficiency of the cells. We argue that top cell partners for silicon tandem solar cells should be selected on the basis of their spectral efficiency — their efficiency resolved by wavelength.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Limiting efficiencies of silicon-based tandem PV cells.
Figure 2: Using spectral efficiency to choose tandem pairings.
Figure 3: Guide for predicting the maximum possible efficiency of a silicon-based tandem as a function of the top-cell bandgap and efficiency.

References

  1. Powell, D. M. et al. Energy Environ. Sci. 5, 5874–5883 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Goodrich, A. C. et al. Energy Environ. Sci. 6, 2811–2821 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Battaglia, C. et al. Energy Environ. Sci. 9, 1552–1576 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Green, M. A. et al. Prog. Photovolt. 24, 3–11 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Richter, A. et al. IEEE J. Photovolt. 3, 1184–1191 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Smith, D. D. et al. IEEE J. Photovolt. 4, 1465–1469 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Green, M. A. Nat. Energy 1, 15015 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. International Technology Roadmap for Photovoltaic (ITRPV): Results 2015 (ITRPV, 2016); http://www.itrpv.net/Reports/Downloads/

  9. Essig, S. et al. IEEE J. Photovolt. 6, 1012–1019 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Garland, J. W. et al. J. Appl. Phys. 109, 102423 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Uzu, H. et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 106, 013506 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Werner, J. et al. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 7, 161–166 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Albrecht, S. et al. Energy Environ. Sci. 9, 81–88 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Faine, P. et al. Sol. Cells 31, 259–278 (1991).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Reynolds, S. et al. J. Phys. Conf. Ser. 398, 012006 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Kurtz, S. et al. Prog. Photovoltaics Res. Appl. 16, 537–546 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Russo, J. M. et al. in Renewable Energy and the Environment. (Optical Society of America, 2013); https://www.osapublishing.org/abstract.cfm?uri=OSE-2013-RW1D.2

    Google Scholar 

  18. Yu, Z. J. et al. IEEE J. Photovolt. 5, 1791–1799 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Tanabe, K. et al. Sci. Rep. 2, 349 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Umeno, M. et al. Sol. Energ. Mat. Sol. Cells 50, 203–212 (1998).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Werner, J. et al. Towards ultra-high efficient photovoltaics with perovskite/crystalline silicon tandem devices. In 31st European PV Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition 6–11 (2015).

    Google Scholar 

  22. Sheng, R. et al. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 6, 3931–3934 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Zhengshan (Jason) Yu, Mehdi Leilaeioun and Zachary Holman are at the School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287-9709, USA.,

    Zhengshan (Jason) Yu, Mehdi Leilaeioun & Zachary Holman

Authors
  1. Zhengshan (Jason) Yu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Mehdi Leilaeioun
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Zachary Holman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Zachary Holman.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Yu, Z., Leilaeioun, M. & Holman, Z. Selecting tandem partners for silicon solar cells. Nat Energy 1, 16137 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nenergy.2016.137

Download citation

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nenergy.2016.137

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing