How Much is the Efficiency of Solar Cells Enhanced by Quantum Coherence?

TL;DR

This study investigates the potential enhancement of solar cell efficiency through quantum coherence, proposing a new model for quantum heat engines and analyzing their power and efficiency characteristics.

Contribution

It introduces a novel description of quantum heat engines in solar cells using a pumping term, addressing previous modeling inaccuracies, and evaluates the impact of quantum coherence on performance.

Findings

Power output increases with photon flux and saturates.

Efficiency decreases rapidly as power increases.

Quantum coherence significantly enhances power but not efficiency.

Abstract

We study how much the efficiency of a solar cell as a quantum heat engine could be enhanced by quantum coherence. In contrast to the conventional approach that a quantum heat engine is in thermal equilibrium with both hot and cold reservoirs, we propose a new description that the quantum heat engine is in the cold reservoir and the thermal radiation from the hot reservoir is described by the pumping term in the master equation. This pumping term solves the problem of the incorrect mean photon number of the hot reservoir assumed by the previous studies. By solving the master equation, we obtain the current-voltage and the power-voltage curves of the photocell for different pumping rates. We find that, as the photon flux increases, the power output of the photocell increases linearly at first and then becomes saturated, but the efficiency decreases rapidly. It is demonstrated that while the power output is enhanced significantly by the quantum coherence via the dark state of the coupled donors, the improvement of the efficiency is not significant.