Semiconductor efficiency

Photon energy emitted by the Sun is used for breaking the barrier formed by positive Gibbs free energy. Hence, the material capable of absorbing photon energy has to be included for complete separation of water molecule. Semiconductors efficiently absorb photon and initiate electron and hole pair required for oxidation and reduction reaction. Due to this property of semiconductors, they are widely used as photocatalyst in decomposition of water. 

There are difficulties in making such cells practical. High-band-gap semiconductors do not respond to visible light, while low-band-gap ones are prone to photocorrosion [182, 185]. In addition, both photochemical and entropy or thermodynamic factors limit the ideal efficiency with which sunlight can be converted to electrical energy [186]. 

Several factors detennine how efficient impurity atoms will be in altering the electronic properties of a semiconductor. For example, the size of the band gap, the shape of the energy bands near the gap and the ability of the valence electrons to screen the impurity atom are all important. The process of adding controlled impurity atoms to semiconductors is called doping. The ability to produce well defined doping levels in semiconductors is one reason for the revolutionary developments in the construction of solid-state electronic devices. 

Katzenellenbogen N and Grischkowsky D 1991 Efficient generation of 380 fs pulses of THz radiation by ultrafast laser pulse excitation of a biased metal-semiconductor interface Appl. Phys. Lett. 58 222-4... 

Semiconductor lasers are some of the most efficient of all lasers, with an efficiency of abouf 30 per cenf. 

It is used as a fluorinating reagent in semiconductor doping, to synthesi2e some hexafluoroarsenate compounds, and in the manufacture of graphite intercalated compounds (10) (see Semiconductors). AsF has been used to achieve >8% total area simulated air-mass 1 power conversion efficiencies in Si p-n junction solar cells (11) (see Solarenergy). It is commercially produced, but usage is estimated to be less than 100 kg/yr. 

The light source for excitation of Nd YAG lasers may be a pulsed flashlamp for pulsed operation, a continuous-arc lamp for continuous operation, or a semiconductor laser diode, for either pulsed or continuous operation. The use of semiconductor laser diodes as the pump source for sohd-state lasers became common in the early 1990s. A variety of commercial diode-pumped lasers are available. One possible configuration is shown in Figure 8. The output of the diode is adjusted by composition and temperature to be near 810 nm, ie, near the peak of the neodymium absorption. The diode lasers are themselves relatively efficient and the output is absorbed better by the Nd YAG than the light from flashlamps or arc lamps. Thus diode-pumped sohd-state lasers have much higher efficiency than conventionally pumped devices. Correspondingly, there is less heat to remove. Thus diode-pumped sohd-state lasers represent a laser class that is much more compact and efficient than eadier devices. 

Thushigh internal quantum efficiency requires short radiative and long nonradiative lifetimes. Nonradiative lifetimes are generally a function of the semiconductor material quaUty and are typically on the order of microseconds to tens of nanoseconds for high quahty material. The radiative recombination rate, n/r, is given by equation 4 ... 

The two-dimensional carrier confinement in the wells formed by the conduction and valence band discontinuities changes many basic semiconductor parameters. The parameter important in the laser is the density of states in the conduction and valence bands. The density of states is gready reduced in quantum well lasers (11,12). This makes it easier to achieve population inversion and thus results in a corresponding reduction in the threshold carrier density. Indeed, quantum well lasers are characterized by threshold current densities as low as 100-150 A/cm, dramatically lower than for conventional lasers. In the quantum well lasers, carriers are confined to the wells which occupy only a small fraction of the active layer volume. The internal loss owing to absorption induced by the high carrier density is very low, as Httie as 2 cm . The output efficiency of such lasers shows almost no dependence on the cavity length, a feature usehil in the preparation of high power lasers. 

The remaining class depicted in Figure 2 is that of soHd-state devices, ie, transistors, various types of semiconductor diode amplifiers, etc. At frequencies below 1 GHz, generation of hundreds or even at the lower frequencies, kilowatts, is feasible by soHd state. Above 1 GHz power capabiHty of soHd-state sources drops. Development of efficient (- 50%) sources at about the 50 W level at S-band (2 GHz) has been demonstrated. It is reasonable to expect soHd-state sources to replace tubes for low frequency and low (<100 W) power appHcations (52). For high power or high frequency, however, tube sources should continue to prevail. 

The key determinants of future cost competitiveness of a-Si H PV technology are a-Si H deposition rates, module production yields, stabilized module efficiencies, production volume, and module design. Reported a-Si H deposition rates vary by more than a factor of 10, but most researchers report that the high quaUty films necessary for high stabilized efficiencies require low deposition rates often due to high hydrogen dhution of the Si (and Ge) source gases (see Semiconductors, amorphous). 

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