The bulk photovoltaic effect in the crystals without center of symmetry and solar harvesting

Abstract

Review of the Bulk Photovoltaic Effect (BPE) is presented. This Effect could be observed in the crystals, which belong to 20 point groups without center of symmetry (ferro- and piezoelectrics). Up to now BPE was observed only in the bulk crystals and shown very low power conversion efficiency (PCE).

At the nanoscale BPE reveals much higher PCE, what opens perspectives for its application in solar cells. New applications of BPE in the tunable band gap perovskites, hybrid perovskites, plasmonics and topological insulators are considered.

KEYWORDS:

• Photovoltaics
• bulk photovoltaic effect
• power conversion efficiency