Principles of Solar Cells: Connecting Perspectives on Device, System, Reliability, and Data Science

How does a solar cell work? How efficient can it be? Why do intricate patterns of metal lines decorate the surface of a solar module? How are the modules arranged in a solar farm? How can sunlight be stored during the day so that it can be used at night? And, how can a lifetime of more than 25 years be ensured in solar modules, despite the exposure to extreme patterns of weather? How do emerging machine-learning techniques assess the health of a solar farm? This practical book will answer all these questions and much more.

Written in a conversational style and with over one-hundred homework problems, this book offers an end-to-end perspective, connecting the multi-disciplinary and multi-scale physical phenomena of electron-photon interaction at the molecular level to the design of kilometers-long solar farms. A new conceptual framework explains each concept in a simple, crystal-clear form. The novel use of thermodynamics not only determines the ultimate conversion efficiencies of the various solar cells proposed over the years, but also identifies the measurement artifacts and establishes practical limits by correlating the degradation modes. Extensive coverage of conceptual techniques already developed in other fields further inspire innovative designs of solar farms.

This book will not only help you to make a solar cell, but it will help you make a solar cell better, to trace and reclaim the photons that would have been lost otherwise. Collaborations across multiple disciplines make photovoltaics real and given the concern about reducing the overall cost of solar energy, this interdisciplinary book is essential reading for anyone interested in photovoltaic technology.

Readership: Advanced undergraduate to beginning graduate students in physics and engineering to researchers and material scientists working in academia, industry, and national laboratories across the world.

Professor Muhammad A Alam holds the Jai N Gupta professorship at Purdue University, where his research focuses on the physics and technology of semiconductor devices. From 1995 to 2003, he was with Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ, as a Member of Technical Staff in the Silicon ULSI Research Department. Since joining Purdue in 2004, Dr Alam has published over 350 papers and he is among the top-20 contributors on diverse topics involving transistors, reliability, biosensors, and solar cells. He is a fellow of IEEE, APS, and AAAS. His awards include the 2006 IEEE Kiyo Tomiyasu Medal for contributions to device technology, 2015 SRC Technical Excellence Award for fundamental contributions to reliability physics, and 2018 IEEE EDS Award for educating, inspiring and mentoring students and electron device professionals around the world. More than 450,000 students worldwide have learned some aspect of semiconductor devices from his web-enabled courses.

Professor M Ryyan Khan completed his PhD from Purdue University in 2016. His thesis research focused on thermodynamic and practical limits of solar cells. Currently, serves as an assistant professor in Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, East West University, Bangladesh. His works on collection-limited theory of OPVs, sustainable food-energy-water nexus, and bifacial panels have been highlighted in press. He has contributed to 4 online modeling and learning tools which are used globally.