Enhanced erbium-doped ceria nanostructure coating to improve solar cell performance

Shehata, N., Clavel, M., Meehan, K., Samir, E., Gaballah, S. and Salah, M. (2015) Enhanced erbium-doped ceria nanostructure coating to improve solar cell performance. Materials, 8(11), pp. 7663-7672. (doi: 10.3390/ma8115399)

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Abstract

This paper discusses the effect of adding reduced erbium-doped ceria nanoparticles (REDC NPs) as a coating on silicon solar cells. Reduced ceria nanoparticles doped with erbium have the advantages of both improving conductivity and optical conversion of solar cells. Oxygen vacancies in ceria nanoparticles reduce Ce4+ to Ce3+ which follow the rule of improving conductivity of solar cells through the hopping mechanism. The existence of Ce3+ helps in the down-conversion from 430 nm excitation to 530 nm emission. The erbium dopant forms energy levels inside the low-phonon ceria host to up-convert the 780 nm excitations into green and red emissions. When coating reduced erbium-doped ceria nanoparticles on the back side of a solar cell, a promising improvement in the solar cell efficiency has been observed from 15% to 16.5% due to the mutual impact of improved electric conductivity and multi-optical conversions. Finally, the impact of the added coater on the electric field distribution inside the solar cell has been studied.

Item Type:Articles
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Meehan, Professor Kathleen
Authors: Shehata, N., Clavel, M., Meehan, K., Samir, E., Gaballah, S., and Salah, M.
College/School:College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering
Journal Name:Materials
Publisher:MDPI
ISSN:1996-1944
ISSN (Online):1996-1944
Copyright Holders:Copyright © 2015 The Authors
First Published:First published in Materials 8(11):7663-7372
Publisher Policy:Reproduced under a Creative Commons License

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