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Will Rectenna Solar Cells Be Practical?

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Rectenna Solar Cells

Abstract

Optical rectennas are an attractive technology for high-efficiency, low-cost solar cells if several technological issues can be addressed. These devices combine submicron antennas with ultra-high speed diodes to rectify incident radiation. Visible light frequency operation requires a quantum approach to analyze the rectification process and design the devices. The small coherence area for sunlight limits the power per rectenna, which affects the conversion efficiency. In assessing the broadband ultimate efficiency obtainable from rectenna solar cells it turns out that operating voltage plays the same role that band gap energy plays in conventional solar cells, leading to a single cell limit of 44 %. Parallel plate diodes cannot provide the 0.1 fs RC time constant that is required to rectify visible light frequencies, and so other potential solutions such as traveling-wave diodes, sharp-tip diodes, or geometric diodes are required. Waste heat harvesting and thermophotovoltaics using optical rectennas would relax the RC constraints because the infrared frequencies are lower than those for visible light, but with substantial coherence impediments. With innovation and careful development rectenna solar cells have the potential to provide an exciting new photovoltaics technology.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Defined as the electric current that would result if each photon produced one electron charge.

  2. 2.

    In the usual spectral plots, the photon energy of the peak is not unique and depends upon the normalization—irradiance per unit wavelength or irradiance per unit photon energy. Therefore, a universal normalization of irradiance per unit fractional bandwidth [35] is used here instead.

  3. 3.

    It appears that energy recycling in TPV raises the limiting efficiency from the Landsberg efficiency to the Carnot efficiency, as pointed out by Pat Brady.

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Acknowledgments

I gratefully acknowledge the following collaborators and students for many insightful discussions about rectenna solar cells and for their helpful comments on this chapter: Pat Brady, Michael Cromar, Sachit Grover, Saumil Joshi, Brad Pelz, and Zixu Zhu.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical, Computer, & Energy Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, 80309-0425, USA

    Garret Moddel

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  1. Garret Moddel
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Correspondence to Garret Moddel .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Electrical Computer & Energy Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA

    Garret Moddel

  2. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, National Center for Photovoltaics, Golden, Colorado, USA

    Sachit Grover

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Moddel, G. (2013). Will Rectenna Solar Cells Be Practical?. In: Moddel, G., Grover, S. (eds) Rectenna Solar Cells. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3716-1_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3716-1_1

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