Novel method for photovoltaic energy conversion using surface acoustic waves in piezoelectric semiconductors

This paper presents a novel principle for photovoltaic (PV) energy conversion using surface acoustic waves (SAWs) in piezoelectric semiconductors. A SAW produces a periodically modulated electric potential, which spatially segregates photoexcited electrons and holes to the maxima and minima of the SAW potential. The moving SAW collectively transports the carriers with the speed of sound to the electrodes made of different materials, which extract electrons and holes separately and generate dc output. The proposed active design is expected to have higher efficiency than passive designs of the existing PV devices and to produce enough energy to sustain the SAW. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.