Thermodynamic limit on the open circuit voltage of solar cells

2024/09/04 by Tom Markvart, Markvart, Tom · 1 citation
Energy · Engineering · #Applied Physics (physics.app-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Optics (physics.optics) #Photovoltaic System Optimization Techniques #Silicon and Solar Cell Technologies #Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) #solar cell performance optimization

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2409.02713

openalex publication_date 2024/09/04 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

A new thermodynamic limit for the open circuit voltage of solar cells that includes thermalization is obtained in terms of photon entropy. A simple graphical construction makes it possible to link this limit to the existing limits for single junction cells due to Trivich and Flinn, Shockley and Queisser and Würfel, and the thermodynamic Carnot-type limit for hot-carrier solar cell. At the fundamental level, this limit points to similarity between photovoltaic and thermoelectric energy conversion.

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