Temperature effect on Intermediate Band Solar Cells (IBSCs)

Abstract

Temperature has profound effect on the performance of solar cells. Most of the electrical processes in the semiconductor devices depend on the temperature and revealed in dramatically variations in their characteristics such as open circuit voltage, short circuit current, power conversion efficiency and the band gap of semiconductor. The aim of this paper is investigation of temperature effects on the Intermediate Band Solar Cells (IBSCs). The theoretical results indicate that performance of this type of the solar cells is low at high temperatures. Increasing in temperature from 300K to 600K decreases the efficiency of solar cell from 63% to 59 % and this decrement continues with temperature increment. This is while temperature can decrease the open circuit voltage and increase the short circuit current.