Multijunction photovoltaic cells having at least three subcells are disclosed, in which at least one of the subcells comprises a base layer formed of GaInNAsSb. The GaInNAsSb subcells exhibit high internal quantum efficiencies over a broad range of irradiance energies.

Light-receiving elements and the like that can more simply absorb and transmit light are provided.

A Light-receiving element includes a lens unit condensing incident light to emit the light from an emission surface, an absorption layer arranged on the emission surface of the lens unit to absorb part of the condensed light and transmit the remaining condensed light, and a detection layer placed on the absorption layer to detect intensity of light emitted from the lens unit, on the basis of intensity of light absorbed by the absorption layer.

A solid or liquid fuel to plasma to electricity power source that provides at leas; one of electrical and thermal power comprising (i) at least one reaction cell for the catalysis of atomic hydrogen to form hydrinos, (ii) a chemical feel mixture comprising at least two components chosen from: a source of H.sub.2O catalyst or H.sub.2O catalyst; a source of atomic hydrogen or atomic hydrogen; reactants to form the source of H.sub.2O catalyst or H.sub.2O catalyst and a source of atomic hydrogen or atomic hydrogen; one or more reactants to initiate the catalysis of atomic hydrogen; and a material to cause the feel to be highly conductive, (iii) a fuel injection system such as a railgun shot injector, (iv) at least one set of electrodes that confine the fuel and an electrical power source that provides repetitive short bursts of low-voltage, high-current electrical energy to initiate rapid kinetics of the hydrino reaction and an energy gain due to forming hydrinos to torn! a brilliant-light emitting plasma, (v) a product recovery system such as at least one of an augmented plasma railgun recovery system and a gravity recovery system (vi) a fuel pelletizer or shot maker comprising a s me Her. a source or hydrogen and a source of H.sub.2O, a dripper and a water bath to form fuel pellets or shot, and an agitator to teed shot into the injector, and (vii) a power converter capable of converting the high-power light output of the cell into electricity such as a concentrated solar power device comprising a plurality of ultraviolet (UV) photoelectric cells or a plurality of photoelectric cells, and a UV window.

A multijunction solar cell which includes: an upper first solar subcell having a first band gap; a second solar subcell adjacent to said upper first solar subcell and having a second band gap smaller than said first band gap; a third solar subcell adjacent to said second solar subcell and having a third band gap smaller than said second band gap; a graded interlayer adjacent to said third solar subcell, said graded interlayer having a fourth band gap greater than said third band gap; and a lower fourth solar subcell adjacent to said graded interlayer, said lower fourth solar subcell having a fifth band gap smaller than said third band gap such that said lower fourth solar subcell is lattice mismatched with respect to said third solar subcell.

The present disclosure provides a method of fabricating a solar cell panel in an automated process by applying an adhesive pattern to a support, positioning a solar cell assembly over the pattern, and applying pressure to adhere the assembly to the support.

A method of forming a multijunction solar cell including an upper subcell, a middle subcell, and a lower subcell by providing a substrate for the epitaxial growth of semiconductor material; forming a first solar subcell on the substrate having a first band gap; forming a second solar subcell over the first solar subcell having a second band gap smaller than the first band gap; forming a graded interlayer over the second subcell, the graded interlayer having a third band gap greater than the second band gap; forming a third solar subcell over the graded interlayer having a fourth band gap smaller than the second band gap such that the third subcell is lattice mismatched with respect to the second subcell; and forming a contact composed of a sequence of layers over the first subcell at a temperature of 280 C. or less and having a contact resistance of less than 510.sup.4 ohms-cm.sup.2.

Solar cells that include quantum dots are provided. In particular, a solar panel is provided, the solar panel comprising: a first solar cell comprising: a first set of quantum dots in a first semiconductor, the first semiconductor configured to receive one or more of ambient light and sunlight and emit first wavelengths a first range of about 450 nm to about 480 nm, the first set of quantum dots configured to convert the first wavelengths to a first electric output; and, a second solar cell comprising: a second set of quantum dots in a second semiconductor, the second semiconductor configured to receive one or more of the ambient light and the sunlight and emit second wavelengths a second range of about 600 nm to about 700 nm, the second set of quantum dots configured to convert the second wavelengths to a second electric output.

In one aspect, optoelectronic devices are described herein. In some implementations, an optoelectronic device comprises a photovoltaic cell. The photovoltaic cell comprises a space-charge region, a quasi-neutral region, and a low bandgap absorber region (LBAR) layer or an improved transport (IT) layer at least partially positioned in the quasi-neutral region of the cell.

A method of fabricating a four-junction solar cell includes: forming a first epitaxial structure comprising first and second subcells and a cover layer over a first substrate through a forward epitaxial growth, and forming a second epitaxial structure comprising third and fourth subcells over the second substrate; forming a groove and a metal bonding layer; forming a groove on the cover layer surface of the first epitaxial structure and the substrate back surface of the second epitaxial structure, and depositing a metal bonding layer in the groove; and bonding the first epitaxial structure and the second epitaxial structure; bonding the cover layer surface of the first epitaxial structure and the substrate back surface of the second epitaxial structure, ensuring that the metal bonding layers are aligned to each other to realize dual bonding between the metal bonding layers and between the semiconductors through high temperature and high pressure treatment.

Material and antireflection structure and methods of manufacturing are provided that produce efficient photovoltaic power conversion from thin film solar cells on flexible substrates. Step-graded antireflection structures are placed on the front of the device structure. Materials of different energy gap are combined in the depletion region of at least one of the semiconductor junctions within the thin film device structure. Conductive, low refractive index layers are deposited on the bottom of the thin film device structure to form an omni-directional back reflector contact.