ISSN:
1089-7550
Source:
AIP Digital Archive
Topics:
Physics
Notes:
It is shown that a recently described general relationship between the local collection efficiency of solar cells and the dark carrier concentration (reciprocity theorem) directly follows from the principle of detailed balance. We derive the relationship for situations where transport of charge carriers occurs between discrete states as well as for the situation where electronic transport is described in terms of continuous functions. Combining both situations allows to extend the range of applicability of the reciprocity theorem to all types of solar cells, including, e.g., metal-insulator-semiconductor-type, electrochemical solar cells, as well as the inclusion of the impurity photovoltaic effect. We generalize the theorem further to situations where the occupation probability of electronic states is governed by Fermi–Dirac statistics instead of Boltzmann statistics as underlying preceding work. In such a situation the reciprocity theorem is restricted to small departures from equilibrium. © 1998 American Institute of Physics.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.368968
