Everything about Solar cell
Device used to produce electricity from light
A solar cell, also known as a photovoltaic cell, is an electronic device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by using the photovoltaic effect. It is a type of photoelectric cell, a device whose electrical characteristics vary when it is exposed to light. Individual solar cell devices are often the electrical building blocks of photovoltaic modules, known colloquially as "solar panels". Almost all commercial PV cells consist of crystalline silicon, with a market share of 95%. Thin-film technologies account for a small share of the global photovoltaic module production. Cadmium telluride thin-film solar cells (CdTe) is the dominant thin-film technology by production volume, while other thin-film technologies include copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS), and amorphous thin-film silicon. The common single-junction silicon solar cell can produce a maximum open-circuit voltage of approximately 0.5 to 0.6 volts. Wikipedia →
🧭 Start here: a 6-step reading path
- Read the overview: Solar cellA 5-minute orientation
- Skim a recent paper: Single-junction organic solar cells with over 19% efficiency enabled by a refined double-fibril network morphologyInfluential work since 2022
- Pick up a classic book: The Professional Chef's Techniques of Healthy CookingThe most-reprinted book on the subject
- Read the landmark paper: A low-cost, high-efficiency solar cell based on dye-sensitized colloidal TiO2 filmsCited 26,937 times
- Go sideways: Bifacial solar cellsA closely related topic
- Go sideways: Crystalline siliconA closely related topic
📖 Definitions
Noun A semiconductor device that converts the radiant energy of sunlight into electrical energy.
🏆 Landmark papers (most cited)
A low-cost, high-efficiency solar cell based on dye-sensitized colloidal TiO2 films
Detailed Balance Limit of Efficiency of p-n Junction Solar Cells
Efficient Hybrid Solar Cells Based on Meso-Superstructured Organometal Halide Perovskites
Sequential deposition as a route to high-performance perovskite-sensitized solar cells
Solar Water Splitting Cells
Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells
Efficient planar heterojunction perovskite solar cells by vapour deposition
Lead Iodide Perovskite Sensitized All-Solid-State Submicron Thin Film Mesoscopic Solar Cell with Efficiency Exceeding 9%
🆕 Influential since 2022
Single-junction organic solar cells with over 19% efficiency enabled by a refined double-fibril network morphology
Inactive (PbI 2 ) 2 RbCl stabilizes perovskite films for efficient solar cells
Improved charge extraction in inverted perovskite solar cells with dual-site-binding ligands
Conformal quantum dot–SnO 2 layers as electron transporters for efficient perovskite solar cells
Minimizing buried interfacial defects for efficient inverted perovskite solar cells
📚 Books worth reading
The Professional Chef's Techniques of Healthy CookingCulinary Institute of America. · 1993- 📕Laser-assisted solar cell metallization processingS. Dutta · 1984
- 📕Solar PV Engineering and InstallationSean White · 2015
Electricity from sunlightPaul A. Lynn · 2010
Advanced characterization techniques for thin film solar cellsDaniel Abou-Ras · 2011- 📕PhotovoltaicsKonrad Mertens · 2013
Photovoltaic design & installation for dummiesRyan Mayfield · 2010
Low-Cost Solar Electric PowerLewis M. Fraas · 2014
Ranked by number of editions on Open Library, a rough measure of how lasting a book is.
🔗 Related topics
- Bifacial solar cells A bifacial solar cell (BSC) is a photovoltaic solar cell that can produce electrical energy from both front and rear side. In contrast, monofacial solar…
- Crystalline silicon Crystalline silicon or (c-Si) is the crystalline forms of silicon, either polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si, consisting of small crystals), or monocrystalline…
- Thin-film solar cell Thin-film solar cells are a type of solar cell made by depositing thin layers of photovoltaic material onto a glass, plastic or metal substrate. Thin-film…
- Solar panel A solar panel is a device that converts sunlight into electricity by using multiple solar modules that consist of photovoltaic (PV) cells. PV cells are…
- Solar cell research There are currently many research groups active in the field of photovoltaics in universities and research institutions around the world. This research…
- Monocrystalline silicon Monocrystalline silicon, often referred to as single-crystal silicon or simply mono-Si, is a critical material widely used in modern electronics and photovoltai…
- Photovoltaics Photovoltaics (PV) is the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect, a phenomenon studied…
- Heterojunction solar cell Heterojunction solar cells (HJT), variously known as Silicon heterojunctions (SHJ) or Heterojunction with Intrinsic Thin Layer (HIT), are a family of photovolta…