Practical concept of an all-optical hot carrier solar cell

Abstract

The all-optical hot carrier solar cell (aoHCSC) is an intriguing device concept which circumvents HC thermalization by feeding HCs into local radiative recombination centers. These have transition energies above the HC absorber (HCA) bandgap and are located within the HCA to match the HC ballistic mean free path, suppressing HC cooling as major loss mechanism. HC energy extraction proceeds by photon emission. We propose a technologically feasible concept of the aoHC energy converter (aoHCEC) which feeds into a conventional solar cell with its bandgap matching the emitted photons. Using real materials, the concept builds upon waveguides within a HCA which consist of highly polar direct bandgap material to promote radiative carrier recombination. (C) 2015 The Japan Society of Applied Physics