The new edition of this highly regarded textbook provides a detailed overview of the most important characterization techniques for solar cells and a discussion of their advantages and disadvantages.

It describes in detail all aspects of solar cell function, the physics behind every single step, as well as all the issues to be considered when improving solar cells and their efficiency. The text is now complete with examples of how the appropriate characterization techniques enable the distinction between several potential limitation factors, describing how quantities that have been introduced theoretically in earlier chapters become experimentally accessible.

With exercises after each chapter to reinforce the newly acquired knowledge and requiring no more than standard physics knowledge, this book enables students and professionals to understand the factors driving conversion efficiency and to apply this to their own solar cell development.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Problems of the Energy Economy

Chapter 2 Photons

Chapter 3 Semiconductors

Chapter 4 Conversion of Thermal Radiation into Chemical Energy

Chapter 5 Conversion of Chemical Energy into Electrical Energy

Chapter 6 Basic Structure of Solar Cells

Chapter 7 Limitations on Energy Conversion in Solar Cells

Chapter 8 Concepts for Improving the Efficiency of Solar Cells

Chapter 9 Characterization of Solar Cells

Solutions

About the Authors

Peter Wurfel studied physics at the University of Karlsruhe where he later became Professor. His research activities started with ferroelectric thin films, mostly for pyroelectric infrared detectors. He has a keen interest in the physics of photovoltaics and has more than 25 years research and teaching experience in this field.

Uli Wurfel studied physics at the Universities of Freiburg and Heidelberg. He received a PhD from the University of Freiburg in 2006. Since 2009 he is head of the group "dye and organic solar cells" at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) in Freiburg. Besides an ambition to realize low-cost organic solar cells, he is also highly interested in selective contacts and modelling solar cells.