Paper presented to the 3rd Southern African Solar Energy Conference, South Africa, 11-13 May, 2015.
The possibility of using the broad band spectra of Eu2+ to improve the absorption of the Pr3+-Yb3+ quantum cutting couple was investigated. The energy transfer mechanisms between Eu2+ and Pr3+ in the SrF2 host are briefly discussed in order to evaluate the potential of Eu2+ as a sensitizer for the Pr3+-Yb3+ couple. The results showed that Eu2+ could be a good sensitizer for the absorption of UV photons and efficiently enhancing the Pr3+ emission, and hence improving the near infrared emission. The investigated system can therefore enable the c-Si solar cell to utilize the solar spectrum more efficiently in the broad wavelength region where c-Si shows a weak response.
