Presented at: SPIE Photonics Europe 2006, Strasbourg, France, 2-7 april 2006.
Abstract:
Luminescent concentrator (LC) plates with different dyes were combined with standard multicrystalline silicon solar cells. External quantum efficiency measurements were performed, showing an increase in electrical current of the silicon cell (under AM1.5, 1 sun conditions, at normal incidence) compared to a bare cell. The influence of dye concentration and plate dimensions are addressed. The best results show a 1.7 times increase in the current from the LC/silicon cell compared to the silicon cell alone. This corresponds to an increase in power conversion efficiency of the silicon cell from 15 to 25%. To broaden the absorption spectrum of the LC, a second dye was incorporated in the LC plates. This results in a relative increase of 5-8% with respect to the one dye LC, giving a maximum power conversion efficiency of 26% on cell area. Using an extended ray-tracing model transmission, reflection and external quantum efficiency spectra were simulated and compared with measured spectra. The simulations deliver the luminescent quantum efficiencies of the two dyes as well as the background absorption by the polymer host. It is found that the quantum efficiency of the red emitting dye is 87%, which is one of the major loss factors in the measured LC. Using ray-tracing simulations it can be predicted that increasing the quantum efficiency to 95% would reduce this loss by almost 30%.
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