Hydrodynamic modeling of hot-carrier effects in a PN junction solar cell

Abstract

This article presents a one-dimensional two-temperature hydrodynamic model to study the thermal and electrical behavior of a gallium arsenide (GaAs) PN junction solar cell. This model treats both electron and heat transfer on equal footing and includes Gauss's law, continuity and momentum equations for electrons and holes, and energy balance using temperature for both carriers and lattice. A zero-order system of equations is obtained using asymptotic series expansions based on the electron Reynolds number for steady-state conditions. An iterative scheme is implemented to solve the zero-order system. The results show the influence of carriers and lattice temperatures in the electrical performance of a GaAs PN junction solar cell. Higher values of power output are obtained with low lattice temperature and hot energy carriers. This modeling contributes to improve the thermal control in photovoltaic technologies