Enhanced quantum yields and efficiency in a quantum dot photocell modeled by a multi-level system

Abstract

To absorb the photons below the band-gap energy effectively, we proposed a quantum dot (QD) photocell modeled by multi-level system for the quantum yields and photo-to-charge efficiency limits. The theoretical results show the quantum yields are enhanced as compared to the single band-gap solar cell, and the photo-to-charge efficiencies are larger than Shockley and Queisser efficiency in the same absorbed spectrum. What's more, at the room temperature the efficiency limits are well beyond 63% achieved by Luque and Marti (Ref\cite{26}) due to absorbing the low-energy photons via two sub-bands in this proposed photocell system. The achievements may reveal a novel theoretical approach to enhance the QD photocell performance modeled a multi-level absorbing photons system.