Heterojunction photovoltaic cell
AssigneePalo Alto Research Center Incorporated
InventorsThomas Hantschel, Karl Littau, Scott Elrod
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Abstract
In accordance with one aspect of the present disclosure, a solar photovoltaic device is disclosed. The semiconductor material of the solar photovoltaic device is a heterostructure of two different binary compounds of a pair of immiscible metals. The two different binary compounds have a conduction band edge offset of greater than about 0.4 eV. The binary compound acting as the optical absorbing material of the solar photovoltaic device has a bandgap of about 1.0 eV to about 1.8 eV.
Claims22
A solar photovoltaic device which comprises:
- a heterostructure of a charge transport material and an optical absorbing material, the charge transport material and the optical absorbing material being binary compounds of two immiscible metals, the optical absorbing material having a bandgap of about 1.0 eV to about 1.8 eV;
- a first transparent electrode disposed on a top surface of the heterostructure;
- and
- a second electrode disposed on a bottom surface of the heterostructure.
A semiconductor layer for a solar photovoltaic device which comprises:
- a heterojunction of a charge transport material and an optical absorbing material, each of the charge transport material and the optical absorbing material being a different binary compound of two immiscible metals.
A method for making a heterojunction of inorganic semiconductors for a solar photovoltaic device comprising:
- depositing a layer of a first metal;
- depositing a layer of a second metal, the first metal and the second metal being immiscible metals;
- forming a compound of the first metal in a depth of the first metal layer;
- forming a compound of the second metal in a depth of the second metal layer so as to create a heterojunction between the compound of the first metal and the compound of the second metal.
A method for making a solar photovoltaic device comprising:
- depositing a layer of a compound of a first metal on a first electrode;
- depositing a layer of a compound of a second metal on the layer of the compound of the first metal, the first metal and the second metal being immiscible metals, so as to create a heterostructure of the compound of the first metal and the compound of the second metal;
- and
- forming a second electrode on the heterostructure of the compound of the first metal and the compound of the second metal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.