Hot electron effect in nanoscopically thin photovoltaic junctions

The open circuit voltage in ultrathin amorphous silicon solar cells is found to increase with light energy frequency , due to extraction of hot electrons. The ultrathin nature of these junctions also leads to large internal electric fields, yielding reduced recombination and increased current. A simple phenomenological argument provides a qualitative understanding of these effects and gives guidelines for designing future, high-efficiency, hot electron solar cells. © 2009 American Institute of Physics. doi:10.1063/1.3267144