Numerical Simulation of Luminescent Downshifting in Top Cell of Monolithic Tandem Solar Cells

Abstract

The increase in the conversion efficiency of monolithic tandem solar cells is limited by the short-circuit current density matching between the top and the bottom cells. Generally, the top cell presents the lowest current in the two subcells. In this paper, in order to increase the short-circuit current density in the top cell, we present a theoretical survey of the luminescence downshifting (LDS) approach for the design of monolithic tandem solar cells. The photovoltaic (PV) glass encapsulation material is replaced with a polymer material of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) type which is doped with diverse kinds of organic dyes. The performance of the n-p-p+ GaInP structure has been simulated as a function of the organic dyes. Gains achieved for the short-circuit current density and conversion efficiency are, respectively, 13.13% and 13.38%, under AM1.5G illumination spectra.