By converting one high-energy light particle into two low energy particles, singlet fission makes high energy photons available for solar cells
Now that solar cells based on silicon technology have almost reached their efficiency limits, researchers from all over the world are looking for alternative technologies to further improve solar cell efficiency. Physicists from AMOLF and Cambridge University have used modelling techniques to compare two such promising technologies: singlet fission photon multipliers and tandem solar cells. While the potential efficiency improvement is almost equal, the singlet fission photon multiplier turned out to be more stable under varying weather conditions. Also, the singlet fission photon multiplier does not require modifications to the silicon technology, which means it could even be used to improve existing solar cells. The researchers publish their findings online in ACS Energy letters on 3 October 2018.
Read the full article at the AMOLF website.
Reference
The Potential of Singlet Fission Photon Multipliers as an Alternative to Silicon-Based Tandem Solar Cells
Moritz H. Futscher, Akshay Rao, and Bruno Ehrler, ACS Energy Lett. 3 (10), 2587–2592 (2018)
