Photovoltaics in Hybrid Superconductor/Semiconductor Structures**

有限的燃料能源、全球变暖和气候变化、可持续性和绿色能源供应是太阳能电池技术的主要驱动力。从1992年到2017年，太阳能电池市场呈指数增长，累计容量达到约401吉瓦，估计足以满足全球约2.1%的电力需求。然而，太阳能电池效率，即电池将太阳光转化为电能的能力，在过去45年对太阳能电池技术的积极研究中没有提高超过约30%。提高转换效率不仅会影响成本，而且还可以补偿太阳光储存电力的不稳定性。* 在这个项目中，Majedi的团队在Callisto Integration的支持下，将在传统硅太阳能电池的基础上设计一种基于超导陶瓷的新型太阳能电池，以提高转换效率，超过硅单结的物理极限，约为32%。该设计基于YBCO陶瓷的超宽带光吸收及其低温操作，以减轻传统太阳能电池的热损耗。这种新的太阳能电池将引导研究人员为新一代硅太阳能电池提出新的物理和工程设计。

Finite resources of fuel energy, global warming and climate change, sustainability and green energy supply are the main drives for solar cell technology. Solar cell market has witnessed an exponential growth from 1992 to 2017 and it cumulative capacity reached about 401Gigawatts estimated to be sufficient for about 2.1% of global electricity demand. However, a solar cell efficiency, the ability of the cell to convert sunlight to electricity, has not been improved more than about 30% over the last 45 years of active research on solar cell technology. Improving the conversion efficiency will not only affect the cost but also compensate the intermittency of sunlight to store electricity. ****In this project, Majedi's group with a support of Callisto Integration will design a new solar cell based on superconducting ceramic on top of conventional silicon solar cell to increase the conversion efficiency beyond the physical limit of silicon single junction that is about 32%. This design is based on ultra wide band optical absorption on YBCO ceramic and its cryogenic operation to mitigate the thermal losses in conventional solar cell. This new solar cell will lead the researchers to come up with new physics and engineering design for the new generation of silicon solar cells.**