SBIR Phase I: Highly Luminescent Manganese-Doped Zinc Selenide Quantum Dots to Enhance Silicon Solar Cell Efficiency through Spectral Down-Conversion

该小型企业技术研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目将展示基于金属离子掺杂纳米晶量子点的光谱下转换器，以提高多晶硅太阳能电池的效率。几十年来，已经尝试将发光光谱下转换层添加到半导体太阳能电池以将太阳光谱中低于500 nm的低效利用的光转移到更长的波长，因为预测的相对效率增益为10- 20%，这是非常显著的改进。由于对发射覆盖层的非常高的性能要求，所以没有得到实用的器件。锰掺杂的硒化锌纳米颗粒在500 nm以上几乎没有吸收，但在600 nm附近的单波段发光效率很高，从而消除了滤光和发光重吸收。这个项目的目的是评估这种材料？的潜力是一个实用的频谱下转换器。这涉及使用溶液数据作为输入的建模计算，使用液体储存器下转换器加太阳能电池测量实际性能增益，以及制备浓缩的薄固体膜及其物理学评估。这样就有可能确定集成薄膜降频转换器/太阳能电池模块的预期效率增益。多晶硅太阳能电池的效率即使很小的改进也会产生更广泛的影响/商业潜力，这代表了一种成熟的技术，实现起来非常困难和昂贵。然而，考虑到它们目前和预期的使用增加，提高它们的性能的好处可能是巨大的，无论是在商业上还是社会上。因此，大约10%（相对）的效率增益将具有很大的商业影响，特别是如果它可以从相当简单和便宜的附加层获得。“该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。"

This Small Business Technology Research (SBIR) Phase I project will demonstrate a spectral down-converter based on metal ion-doped nanocrystalline quantum dots to increase the efficiency of polycrystalline silicon solar cells. Attempts to add a luminescent spectral down-conversion layer to semiconductor solar cells to shift inefficiently-utilized light below 500 nm in the solar spectrum to longer wavelength have been made over several decades because of predicted relative efficiency gains of 10-20%, a very significant improvement. No practical device has resulted because of the very high performance requirements for the emissive over-layer. Manganese-doped zinc selenide nanoparticles exhibit little absorption longer than 500 nm, yet luminescence with high efficiency in a single band near 600 nm, thus eliminating both optical filtering and luminescence reabsorption. The objective of this project is to evaluate this material?s potential to be a practical spectral down-converter. This involves modeling calculations using solution data as input, measurement of actual performance gains using liquid-reservoir down-converter plus solar cell, and preparation of concentrated thin solid films and their photophysical evaluation. It will then be possible to determine the efficiency gains that can be expected from an integrated thin-film down-converter/solar cell module.The broader impacts/commercial potential of even small improvements in the efficiency of polycrystalline silicon solar cells, which represents a mature technology are very difficult and costly to realize. Yet the advantages of improving their performance is potentially enormous, both commercial and societal, given their current and anticipated increased utilization. Therefore a gain in efficiency on the order of 10% (relative) would have a large commercial impact, especially if it can be obtained from a fairly simple and inexpensive add-on layer."This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5)."