5ab0642b   
   XPost: sci.physics, sci.electronics.design, sci.chem   
   From: r_delaney2001@yahoo.com   
      
   On Apr 30, Tim Wescott  wrote:   
   > >I recently attendesd a seminar on photovoltaic research.  The   
   > >speaker showed a graph, how the power efficiency drops   
   > >as the recombination time of the minority carriers decreases.   
   >   
   > > And, the quantum efficiency drops, as well.  What does that mean?   
   >   
   > The quantum efficiency of a light-to-electric device refers to the   
   > proportion of photons that get converted to electrons.   
   >   
   > I'm not sure why quantum efficiency would suffer as recombination   
   > time goes down unless (a) they're referring to the overall   
    >quantum efficiency (in which case power efficiency and quantum   
   > efficiency are just synonyms)   
   > or (b) low recombination time means a greater chance that an   
   > electron will never get knocked fully out of the valence band,   
   > and hence will never contribute to power generation.   
      
   So, it's possible to see high quantum efficency,   
   but low power output efficiency?   
      
   That would be an argument for thin junctions, yes/no?   
      
      
      
   --   
   Rich   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
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