ABSTRACT
The first rigorous treatment of the limiting efficiencies of solar photovoltaic energy converters was given by Shockley and Queisser (1961). The authors made use of the fact that radiative recombination within the solar absorber will place the ultimate limit on efficiency. Their initial limit was near 44% for a single material solar absorber operating in an absolute zero ambient and illuminated with a 6,000K blackbody spectrum. This number has since been revised to 33% for an AM1.5 spectrum and the cell operating near room temperature (De Vos and Pauwels, 1981; Wuerfel and Ruppel, 1980).
