Schedule: The course started at 16 h and the duration is about 2 h with breaks for questions and answers.

Program:

1. Electrons and holes in semiconductors.

Vacuum level, work function, Fermi levels, semiconductor junctions

2. Light interacting with semiconductors.

Light absorption, solar spectrum, recombination

3. Photovoltaic principles

General characteristics of solar energy conversion, and the physical limits to conversion efficiency

4. Basic device properties

Semiconductor diode. Selective contacts. Charge transport and collection

🏅 Best ePoster prize: valued at 1 book ''The Physical Principles of Photovoltaics and Solar Energy Conversion'' supported by Taylor and Francis has been won by Simon Petrick.

🏅 Best ePoster prize: valued at 1 book ''The Physical Principles of Photovoltaics and Solar Energy Conversion'' supported by Taylor and Francis has been won by Nisheka Nitin Anadkat.

🏅 Best ePoster prize: valued at 1 book ''The Physical Principles of Photovoltaics and Solar Energy Conversion'' supported by Taylor and Francis has been won by Ishita Jalan.

This lecture was given by Prof. Juan Bisquert on February the 1st 2021.

The research on advanced energy conversion devices as solar cells has evolved been intense in the last two decades. A broad landscape of candidate materials and devices were discovered and systematically studied and reported for effective solar energy conversion and utilization. New concepts emerged forming and a rather powerful picture embracing the mechanisms and limitation to efficiencies of very different broad types of devices has emerged from many discussions and sometimes also as well as from conceptual clashes. This talk is based on the book Physics of Solar Energy Conversion that introduces the main physico-chemical principles that govern the operation of energy devices for energy conversion and storage, with a detailed view of the principles of solar energy conversion using advanced materials. The talk is focused on the fundamental description of photovoltaic operation, mainly on new technologies from organics to metal halide perovskites. We explain the basic properties of interaction of a semiconductor with light, the physical properties controlling the production of current and voltage, the diode model with selective contacts, and the factors that control the energy conversion efficiency of the solar cell devices.

The course is based on the text book: