Solar Energy An Introduction

Photovoltics

Part 1: Semiconductors
 Direct Conversion of Solar Radiation to
Electricity

1. Photoelectric Effect
2. Semiconductors
3. P-N junction
4. Band gap effects
5. Photovoltaic cells
6. Photovoltaic modules
7. Photovoltaic Arrays
8. Photovoltaic Systems
 Photoelectric Effect
A photon has no electric charge or mass but posses momentum, energy and spin.
The focus is on the interaction of electromagnetic waves (photons) with electrons to
understand the creation and absorption of light.
In a metal, the atoms are anchored to fixed sites by the electrostatic forces due to all the
other atoms. The outermost orbital electrons of the atoms are almost free, and move through
the metal when an electric field is applied.
It is known that if one shines a beam of light on a clean surface of a metal, electrons can
escape from the metal surface and can be detected as electric current - photoelectric effect.
The light has to exceed a certain energy to remove electrons from the metal surface. The
number of electrons that escape in a given time rises with the light beam intensity. However,
the energy with which they escape does not depend on the beam intensity, rather it depends
on the frequency of light, (in Hz). The energy E of each photon is proportional to frequency.

E h
Where h is Plancks constant that is equal to 6.626 x 10-34 J s.
Photoelectric Effect
 Electron Energy Levels

EFP

Schematic of electron energy spectra in solids at absolute zero temperature. The free
electron gas has a continuous band of extremely densely spaced energy levels. Lone
atoms have only a few discrete electron energy levels. Metals and insulators have
energy levels grouped into densely spaced bands separated by gaps.

EFP : Fermi energy for free electron gas

electron mass : me : : reduced Plancks constant
Number of electrons per unit volume =1.054,571,73 x10-34 Js
 Electron Energy Levels

EFP

Electron energy spectra at non-zero temperature

1 ne : the average number of electrons per single particle

ne (E p ) state for non-zero temperature
e kBT
1 T: Absolute temperature
kB: Boltzman constant = 1.38x10-23 J/K
: Chemical potential
 Material Classification: Conductivity
Polystyrene Graphite
teflon Germanium Cu
SiO2 Nylon Silicon Ag
Conductivity Au

10-20 10-15 10-10 10-5 100 105 1010

Insulators Semiconductors Metals

Semiconductors:

The conductivity is controllable by addition of impurities called dopants

The conductivity is strongly temperature dependent and increases as the

temperature increases
Microscopic Ohms law: = J/E = ne
J: Current density (A/m2); E : Electric Field (V/m); n: Charge carrier number density
(#/m3); Charge /carrier: -e
e = 1.602x10-9 Couloumb ; : carrier mobility in m2/V.s a material property
 Insulators and Semiconductors
In crystals of semiconductor materials no band overlap occurs. At temperature T = 0 , a
number of bands are completely filled with electrons and the rest being empty. The
topmost filled band is called the valance band and the next band above it, which is empty,
is called conduction band.
If a crystal is placed in a strong electric field, some of the electrons in the valance band
may be excited into the conduction band. At T >0 some of the valance band electrons are
thermally excited into conduction band. The number of electrons that appear in the
conduction band varies with the width of the energy* gap and with the temperature.
In an insulator, is so large that the electron concentration in the conduction band are
negligibly small and there fore also the electric current.
In a semiconductor, is small enough for there to be significant electron concentration in
the conduction band. This increases as the temperature increases.

Excitation electrons from top of the valance band into

the bottom of the conduction band

*The energy level is represented by an electron

volt (eV) - energy acquired by 1 electron moving
through a potential difference of 1 volt.
 Semiconductors
When a photon is absorbed in the semiconductor, thereby
transferring energy to a bound immobile electron in the
valance band which is then excited across the band gap
into the conduction band, where it is free to move about
the solid. The photon must carry more energy than
required to transfer the electron across the gap. The
electron that has been excited to the conduction band
leaves a place in the valance band that is now not
occupied by an electron. Such an empty energy state of a
negatively charged electron behaves like a positively
charged particle- a so-called hole. These charge carrying
holes are also comparatively free to move about the
semiconductor solid.

The interaction between the energized electron and the hole it leaves behind
is called an exciton, and the difference in energy levels between the hole and
the electron is also known as the band gap.
 Semiconductors

In the intrinsic semiconductor, the number of electrons in the conduction band

being small, the average number of electrons per state in this band is then

E p
ne e kBT
Egap
P

At the bottom of the conduction band ne e 2kBT

At room tempearture kBT is about 0.025 eV, while for silicon, the band gap is about 1.12V. That makes ne about
2x10-10. Only about one in 5 billion quantum states in the lower part of the conduction band has an electron in
it. And even less in the higher up in the band. Hence, pure silicon conducts electricity very poorly.
 Semiconductors

The summary is that semiconductors have much too few current carriers
to have good conductivity.
By adding minute quantities of other materials, the conductivity of
intrinsic semiconductors can be greatly improved.