Exciton fission enhanced silicon solar cell

Nagaya, Narumi [Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)]; Lee, Kangmin [Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)]; Perkinson, Collin F. [Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)]; Li, Aaron [Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)]; Lee, Youri [Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), Ulsan (Korea, Republic of)]; Zhong, Xinjue [Princeton Univ., NJ (United States)]; Lee, Sujin [Princeton Univ., NJ (United States)]; Weisburn, Leah P. [Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)]; Wang, Janet Z. [Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)]; Baikie, Tomi K. [Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)]; Bawendi, Moungi G. [Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)]; Van Voorhis, Troy [Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)]; Tisdale, William A. [Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)]; Kahn, Antoine [Princeton Univ., NJ (United States)]; Seo, Kwanyong [Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), Ulsan (Korea, Republic of)]; Baldo, Marc A. [Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000322015257)

doi:10.1016/j.joule.2025.101965

DOE OSTI · 3366343

Exciton fission enhanced silicon solar cell

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Abstract

While silicon solar cells dominate global photovoltaic energy production, their continued improvement is hindered by the single-junction limit. One possible solution is to use molecular singlet exciton fission to generate two electrons from each absorbed high-energy photon. We demonstrate that the long-standing challenge of coupling molecular excited states to silicon solar cells can be overcome using sequential charge transfer. Combining zinc phthalocyanine, aluminum oxide, and a shallow junction crystalline silicon microwire solar cell, the peak charge generation efficiency per photon absorbed in tetracene is (138% ± 6%), comfortably surpassing the quantum efficiency limit for conventional silicon solar cells and establishing a new, scalable approach to low-cost, high-efficiency photovoltaics.

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14 SOLAR ENERGY Shockley-Queisser limit charge transfer silicon photovoltaics singlet fission solar cell triplet exciton transfer

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Nagaya, Narumi [Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)], Lee, Kangmin [Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)], Perkinson, Collin F. [Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)], Li, Aaron [Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)], Lee, Youri [Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), Ulsan (Korea, Republic of)], Zhong, Xinjue [Princeton Univ., NJ (United States)], Lee, Sujin [Princeton Univ., NJ (United States)], Weisburn, Leah P. [Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)], Wang, Janet Z. [Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)], Baikie, Tomi K. [Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)], Bawendi, Moungi G. [Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)], Van Voorhis, Troy [Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)], Tisdale, William A. [Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)], Kahn, Antoine [Princeton Univ., NJ (United States)], Seo, Kwanyong [Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), Ulsan (Korea, Republic of)], Baldo, Marc A. [Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000322015257). 2025-05-22. Exciton fission enhanced silicon solar cell. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joule.2025.101965

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