Mathematical modeling and analysis of hot carrier solar cells

Abstract: This thesis focuses on the analysis of a mathematical model of a nanowire based hot carrier solar cell. The relevance of the topic comes from the energy crisis society is facing today. Firstly, we discuss the basic principle of hot carrier solar cells and discuss several energy loss factors. Then we set up the system and discuss the relevant approximations. Moreover analytical expressions of the carrier and heat current are derived in order to determine the maximum power, efficiency and Fill factor of the solar cell. Different parameters like the potential barrier height within the solar cell are investigated such that their trends in the overall performance can be determined. The model represents a very ideal case and does not take many loss mechanisms into consideration. Therefore the thesis has many future research possibilities so it can be applied in the laboratory.