Energy Physics

Lecture 4
B V Kheswa

University of Johannesburg

24 March 2021
 Course Content
•  Nuclear Energy / Power
•  Solar Energy / Power
•  Semiconductor Solar Cells
•  Wind Energy / Power
•  Water Energy / Power
•  Energy Storage
Prescribed Textbook
 Learning Outcomes and Assessments
•  Students will be able to show understanding
of conceptual physics of energy resources and
their applications

•  Continuous assessment based on

assignments, tests, research essay
 Announcement
Your Test 1 will be written on 14 April 2021, on
blackboard, during your energy physics period

Assignment 1 must be done in groups of 10, and
sent to [email protected] by 12 April 2021.
Name of group members must be writing the
cover page of the assignment. Late Submission
will not be considered
 Lecture 4 Content
1. Semiconductor Characteristics
•  Reverse biased p-n junction
•  Forward biased p-n junction
•  Net-current vs voltage characteristics of a p-n junction

2. Semiconductor Solar Cells
•  Photon absorption at p-n junction
•  Output current of a solar cell vs its output voltage
•  Maximum power delivered by solar cell
•  The Shockley-Queisser limit
•  Increasing efficiency of solar cells

 Biased p-n Junction
Reverse Bias
•  Reverse bias voltage V push majority charge
carriers away from the junction

•  increasing the width of the
depletion region

•  Increasing the height of the potential
barrier from V0 to (V0 + V)

•  reducing the diffusion current to
essentially zero

•  The drift current is essentially insensitive to
the bias voltage



 Biased p-n Junction
Forward Bias
•  Forward bias voltage V push majority charge
carriers away towards the junction

•  Decreasing the width of the
depletion region

•  Decreasing the height of the potential
barrier from V0 to (V0 - V)

•  Increasing the diffusion current

•  The drift current is essentially insensitive to
the bias voltage



 Net Current-Voltage Characteristics of
a p-n Junction

i) At equilibrium there is no bias, net current is zero

ii) As voltage V is increased in reverse bias, saturation current i0 remains constant = drift current, typically 10-10 – 10-12 A


ii) As the voltage V is increased in forward bias, the current i increases rapidly

•  Analytically, net current depends on bias voltage according to

 Assignment 1 Part A
•  Electrons fill the available energy levels of energy bands in a semiconductor and be
thermally excited from valence band to conduction band
•  Derive equations for calculating resulting electron (and hole) densities or
concentrations in these energy bands,
Hint: You need to know the following:
(i) the density of states in the bands
(ii) the probability of each of these states being occupied

•  Use the equation you derived to solve the problem below

•  Discuss the Fermi Energy Levels of n-type and p-type semiconductor




End of Semiconductor Characteristics
 Semiconductor Solar Cells
•  A semiconductor solar cell is essentially a p–n junction
•  It has a large surface area to collect solar radiation.
•  We will describe what happens when sunlight is incident on a p–n junction
•  How the electrical power that it delivers to an external load can be maximized
•  We also describe ways of increasing the efficiency of solar cells
 Semiconductor Solar Cells
Photon absorption at p-n junction
•  When a photon is incident upon a semiconductor
material
- an electron may be promoted from the valence
band to the conduction band
- This only happens if the photon has an energy hν
greater than the band gap energy Eg

•  Semiconductors can be categorized according to their light absorption coefficient
- direct band semiconductor
e.g.Gallium arsenide (GaAs)
- indirect band semiconductor
e.g. Silicon (Si)
 Semiconductor Solar Cells
Photon absorption at p-n junction
•  When photon is incident to depletion region, electron–hole pair may be produced
•  Electron moves to n region and hole moves to p region, due to inbuilt electric field
•  This results in a flow of electron current in an external circuit
•  electrons flow from the n region around the external circuit and enter the p region
where they recombine with holes.
 Semiconductor Solar Cells
Output Current of Solar Cell vs Its Output Voltage
•  A solar cell is considered to be a battery that
delivers a positive current icell to an external load.
•  Output current depends on output voltage
according to


•  This relationship is illustrated in the figure below

•  As light intensity increases output current increases

•  As resistance increases, more charge is accumulated,
created electron-hole more repulsion, hence output
current decreases
 Maximum Power Delivered by Solar Cell
•  Power delivered to external load by solar cell is
•  We would like to achieve the maximum possible power
•  This is achieved at specific V and I given by

•  The most useful figure of merit for a solar cell is its power conversion efficiency
- it’s the ratio of maximum cell output power to solar power

•  For commercial solar cells its approx. 20%

 The Shockley–Queisser limit
•  In 1961 Shockley and Queisser showed theoretically that the maximum possible
efficiency of single solar cell is 34%
- e.g. if solar irradiance is 1000 W/m2, the maximum power of solar cell is 340 W/m2

•  This is due to three factors
i) Not all incident photons have enough energy promote electrons to conduction band
ii) Fraction of photon energy is dissipated as heat
iii) Fraction of photon generated electron-hole pairs recombine before contribute to
photocurrent
 Efficiency of Solar Cell as function of
Band Gap Energy
•  Shockley and Queisser obtained a curve for solar cell efficiency as a function
of band gap energy

•  It shows that optimum band gab is
1.34 eV with efficiency of 34%


•  Si has band gap 1.11eV which is close
to optimum value and has efficiency 29%

•  However, commercial solar cells have
efficiency of 22%, due practical effects such as
light reflected from front surface of the cell
 Assignment 1 Part B
•  Discuss Solar Cell Construction and
Advantages of using Si in Solar cells
 Increasing Efficiency of Solar Cell
Multi-Junction Solar Cell
•  Most efficient use of solar energy comes from those photons that have an energy
just above the band gap energy
•  However, solar spectrum has wide rage of photon energies
•  this suggests stacking together two or more p–n junctions to form a tandem or
multi-junction cell in which the band gaps of the junctions are different

1.89 eV

1.42 eV

0.67eV
 Increasing Efficiency of Solar Cell
Light Concentration
•  One way to increase the output power of a solar cell is simply to collect sunlight
over a large area and concentrate it onto the cell with a lens or mirror
•  Concentration of incident light can be obtained with a Fresnel lens or a parabolic
mirror, or their combination
 Assignment 1 Part C
•  Discuss the Operation Principle of Quantum
Dot Solar Cells
•  Discuss advantages of Using Quantum Dot
Solar Cells
 Semiconductor Solar Cells
Example / Classwork

Problem:
 Semiconductor Solar Cells
Example / Classwork

Solution:
 Semiconductor Solar Cells
Example / Classwork

Solution:
 Semiconductor Solar Cells
Example / Classwork

Solution:
 Semiconductor Solar Cells
Example / Classwork

Solution:
 Semiconductor Solar Cells
Example / Classwork

Solution:
 Semiconductor Solar Cells
Example / Classwork

Solution:



End of Semiconductor Solar Cells