Determine the principle of creating a highly efficient solar cells
U.S. researchers from the Department of Materials Science National Laboratory. Lawrence Berkeley in collaboration with scientists from Cornell University and Ritsumeikan University, Japan found that the band gap semiconductor such as indium nitride is much less than previously thought. If you previously thought that this figure is close to the 2-electron volts (eV), it is now clear that he is less than 0.7 eV.
This opening means in particular that the photocells based alloy comprising indium, gallium, and nitrogen (In1-xGaxN), will be sensitive to the solar radiation spectrum - from near infrared to ultraviolet, and up. The use of this alloy in solar cells can serve as a basis for a relatively inexpensive panels, which in this case would be stronger and more effective than those that were created earlier. As suggested Vladek Valyukevich Berkeley, multijunction solar cell of the two layers of indium gallium nitride can achieve maximum efficiency of the theoretical limit of 50%.
To do this, one layer need to tune on the band gap of 1.7 eV and the other at 1.1 eV. If the solar cell is able to create a large number of layers, where each layer will have a bandgap its maximum theoretical efficiency can be higher than 70%.
In this semiconductor indium and gallium nitride are highly resistant to radiation, which makes them an ideal material for the manufacture of solar spacecraft. As for the cost of production of solar cells, the Valyukevich believes that it may be close to the cost of LEDs that are used in road signs.
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