Photon Absorption Models in Nanostructured Semiconductor Solar Cells and Devices

This book is intended to be used by materials and device physicists and also solar cells researchers. It models the performance characteristics of nanostructured solar cells and resolves the dynamics of transitions between several levels of these devices. An outstanding insight into the physical behaviour of these devices is provided, which complements experimental work. This therefore allows a better understanding of the results, enabling the development of new experiments and optimization of new devices. It is intended to be accessible to researchers, but also to provide engineering tools which are often only accessible to quantum physicists.

Photon Absorption Models in Nanostructured Semiconductor Solar Cells and Devices is intended to provide an easy-to-handle means to calculate the light absorption in nanostructures, the final goal being the ability to model operational behaviour of nanostructured solar cells. It allows researchers to design new experiments and improve solar cell performances, and offers a means for the easy approximate calculation of the energy spectrum and photon absorption coefficients of nanostructures. This calculation is based on the effective mass model and uses a new Hamiltonian called the Empirical kp Hamiltonian, which is based on a four band kp model.

Antonio Luque is professor emeritus at the Technical University of Madrid, and he leads the Institute of Solar Energy which he founded in 1979. In 1997 he developed the concept of the intermediate band solar cell, a novel idea that can be applied to nanotechnology. His seminal paper on the intermediate band solar cell has received over 675 citations in Web of Knowledge, and over 1000 citations in Harzing’s Publish or Perish. Professor Luque has also received numerous distinctions, among them Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (Spain), foreign member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, two honorary doctorates (Spain), Member of Honour of the Ioffe Institute in St Petersburg, the European Commission Becquerel Prize and the IEEE Cherry Award prize. He has published numerous peer-reviewed papers, authored a book in English and edited several other books.