Original title: Silicon Solar Cell Design for >30% Efficiency via Singlet Fission
Shona McNab, Phoebe Pearce, Pietro P. Altermatt, Jingnan Tong +7 · September 2026
Standard silicon solar cells have a limit on how much sunlight they can turn into electricity. Multi-junction designs break this limit, but they are complex. Singlet fission materials offer an easier path. They absorb high-energy light particles, called photons, and turn each one into multiple electrical charge carriers. Researchers modeled how to pair these materials with commercial silicon cells. They found that interdigitated back-contact cells work best because their front surface is completely open to light. This specific setup can reach an efficiency over 33%. However, performance drops if the front surface is not sealed well against lost energy. Fortunately, controlling surface doping and interfacial charge stops these losses and eases requirements for ultra-thin transfer layers.
You are packing a suitcase for a trip. You have one large item that takes up a lot of space, but you can break it into two smaller items that fit better. The problem is that the suitcase's lining can snag and damage the items if it is not smooth enough. In this paper, the singlet fission material splits one high-energy light particle into two packets of energy, but the silicon cell's front surface must be perfectly smooth to prevent those packets from being lost.
Solar cells are the backbone of renewable energy, but conventional silicon cells hit a theoretical efficiency limit around 29%. Singlet fission materials break that limit by converting high-energy sunlight into extra electricity without the complexity of stacking multiple cell layers. This work shows how to integrate them into real-world silicon cell designs, potentially making cheap, high-efficiency solar panels a practical reality.
The abstract notes that performance is highly sensitive to front-surface passivation quality, and that appropriate silicon design can mitigate losses. However, it does not specify experimental validation, manufacturing costs, or long-term stability. The simulations assume idealized conditions and may not account for all real-world losses. The work is a simulation study, not a demonstration of a working device beyond the first proof-of-concept in 2025.
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Silicon Solar Cell Design for >30% Efficiency via Singlet Fission — Shona McNab, Phoebe Pearce, Pietro P. Altermatt et al.
Abstract licence: CC0
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper. This is a preprint, so it hasn't necessarily been peer reviewed.