Courses Taught
Please contact Professor Simmonds for more information. Browse the course catalog to view all courses offered at Tufts.
EE114: Physics of Solar Cells
Spring 2024
Professor: Paul Simmonds
Email: paul.simmonds@tufts.edu
TA: Pan Menasuta
Email: thachachanok.menasuta@tufts.edu
Texts:
A Tutorial on Quantum Mechanics, Thermal Physics, and Energy Bands by Brian Aull. Posted in Canvas course site.
The Physics of Solar Cells by Jenny Nelson
Course Software:
For general calculations and modelling: Student are free to choose their favorite tool. Examples are MathCAD, MATLAB, and Wolfram Mathematica. Mathematica is the professor's favorite tool and will be used in class to show animations.
Crosslight - We will be using the TCAD package, Crosslight APSYS, to simulate solar cells. This package is being provided to us by Crosslight (https://crosslight.com/).
Homework:
Homework will be assigned weekly and will be due the following week in class. The first few homework sets will look like traditional problem sets. Then we will transition into a set of mini-projects in Crosslight to help the student learn this tool and to gain insight into the factors that determine the performance of a solar cell.
Projects:
Students will form teams of 2 (with one team of 3 if the number of students is odd). Each team will do a design project using Crosslight. Details of the project will be provided in class.
Mini quizzes:
There will be weekly take-home mini quizzes. These are intended to assess understanding and to detect and clear up misconceptions.
In-class polls:
Poll Everywhere will be used for in-class exercises. Getting the right answer does not count toward any grade; it is used just for a participation grade.
Grading weights:
Homework 50%, Project 25%, Quizzes 15%, Participation 10%
Tentative schedule of topics:
# Topic
1 Introduction and overview
2 The rise of quantum mechanics
3 Waves and the Schrodinger equation
4 Solutions to the Schrodinger equation
5 From energy levels to energy bands
6 Energy bands in semiconductors
7 Fermi-Dirac statistics
8 Semiconductors in equilibrium: Electrons, holes, and doping
9 Drift and diffusion
10 Generation and recombination, continuity
11 pn junction diode - ideal IV charateristics and photoresponse
12 pn junction diode -non-idealities
13 Simple silicond solar cell design and optimization
14 Workshop on building a simple p+n solar cell in Crossllght
15 Managing light - AR coatings, light trapping,
16 Managing surfaces - ohmic and rectifing contacts, surface recombination
17 Comparison of Si to GaAs and other materials for homojunctions
18 Semiconductor Heterojunctions & Band Diagrams
19 Tandem solar cells
20 Tunnel junctions
21 Workshop on building two-junction solar cell in Crossllght
22 Multijunction cells
23 Multijunction cells
24 Thin film solar cells
25 New solar cell concepts - organic solar cells, perovskites
26 Presentations