Simulation of nanostructure-based high-efficiency solar cells: challenges, existing approaches and future directions

TL;DR

This paper reviews the challenges and current simulation approaches for high-efficiency solar cells that incorporate semiconductor nanostructures, highlighting the complexities in modeling their optoelectronic behavior.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of the theoretical challenges and existing simulation methods for nanostructure-based photovoltaic devices, and discusses future research directions.

Findings

Nanostructures significantly alter electronic transport in solar cells.

Existing simulation approaches vary in their ability to accurately model nanostructure effects.

Identified key challenges for future theoretical and computational modeling.

Abstract

Many advanced concepts for high-efficiency photovoltaic devices exploit the peculiar optoelectronic properties of semiconductor nanostructures such as quantum wells, wires and dots. While the optics of such devices is only modestly affected due to the small size of the structures, the optical transitions and electronic transport can strongly deviate from the simple bulk picture known from conventional solar cell devices. This review article discusses the challenges for an adequate theoretical description of the photovoltaic device operation arising from the introduction of nanostructure absorber and/or conductor components and gives an overview of existing device simulation approaches.