Tunneling solar cell under concentrated light illumination

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Abstract
The behavior of ITO-SiOx-pSi tunneling solar cell (MIS type) under concentrated light illumination is analyzed theoretically. Conversion efficiency as high as 22.7% is predicted at 75×AM1 illumination. At still higher light concentration the efficiency drops mainly owing to the resistance of the SiOx layer. The numberical calculations show the important role of the interface states in the tunneling process, electrical charge storage, and carrier recombination. Large current flowing through the diode can induce significant quasi-Fermi level drop across the insulator layer and electric charge storage in the depletion region. The operation of the diode cannot be explained by the standard MIS theory of low current densities. Therefore a more general treatment is presented here.