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PHOTOVOLTAICS

Utilizing hot electrons

Nature Energy volume 3, pages 170–171 (2018)Cite this article

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In current solar cells, any photon energy exceeding the semiconductor bandgap is lost before being collected, limiting the cell performance. Hot carrier solar cells could avoid these losses. Now, a detailed experimental study and analysis shows that this strategy could lead to an improvement of the photoconversion efficiency in practice.

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Fig. 1: Efficiency and architecture of envisioned hot carrier solar cells.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA

    Arthur J. Nozik

  2. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO, USA

    Arthur J. Nozik

  3. University of Colorado Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute (RASEI), Boulder, CO, USA

    Arthur J. Nozik

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  1. Arthur J. Nozik
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Correspondence to Arthur J. Nozik.

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Nozik, A.J. Utilizing hot electrons. Nat Energy 3, 170–171 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-018-0112-5

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