Output details
15 - General Engineering
Heriot-Watt University (joint submission with University of Edinburgh)
Ultra-high photoluminescent quantum yield of β-NaYF4: 10% Er3+ via broadband excitation of upconversion for photovoltaic devices
“Spectral conversion” of sunlight is an exciting approach for achieving high energy conversion efficiencies. This paper resulted from an EU FP7 (EU grant agreement no. 246200, £615k) project with Bern (CH) and resulted in the demonstration of the highest reported up-conversion (UC) efficiency of 16.2%. The work paves the way for single-junction solar cell structures that incorporate an UC layer on the rear to harvest currently-wasted sunlight in the near-infrared. Importantly, our work extends beyond the typical monochromatic excitation of lanthanide ions to one step closer to sunlight: broadband excitation of Er3+ in the range 1480–1560nm via supercontinuum laser.
