{"id":244955,"date":"2026-10-06T01:42:22","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T06:42:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/10\/atomic-motion-could-help-push-solar-cells-beyond-conventional-limits"},"modified":"2026-10-06T01:42:22","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T06:42:22","slug":"atomic-motion-could-help-push-solar-cells-beyond-conventional-limits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/10\/atomic-motion-could-help-push-solar-cells-beyond-conventional-limits","title":{"rendered":"Atomic motion could help push solar cells beyond conventional limits"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/atomic-motion-could-help-push-solar-cells-beyond-conventional-limits2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The bulk photovoltaic effect (BPVE), a photoelectric effect that generates photocurrent without a p\u2013n junction, can persist even when a material\u2019s average crystal structure remains centrosymmetric, a study from Institute of Science Tokyo has found. Researchers demonstrated this in CuCrP<sub>2<\/sub>S<sub>6<\/sub>, a van der Waals material that transitions from a noncentrosymmetric to a centrosymmetric average structure. The finding challenges the conventional view of BPVE and suggests a new strategy for enhancing photoelectric conversion.<\/p>\n<p>Conventional solar cells generate photocurrent by separating and transporting light-generated charge carriers, typically through structures such as p\u2013n junctions. This approach has a fundamental theoretical efficiency limit, known as the Shockley\u2013Queisser limit. For an ideal single-junction silicon solar cell, this limit is about 33%.<\/p>\n<p>The bulk photovoltaic effect (BPVE) offers an alternative way of generating photocurrent that is not subject to the same Shockley\u2013Queisser limit. In BPVE, light interacts with a material to generate photocurrent without requiring a p\u2013n junction. BPVE has traditionally been associated with noncentrosymmetric crystal structures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The bulk photovoltaic effect (BPVE), a photoelectric effect that generates photocurrent without a p\u2013n junction, can persist even when a material\u2019s average crystal structure remains centrosymmetric, a study from Institute of Science Tokyo has found. Researchers demonstrated this in CuCrP2S6, a van der Waals material that transitions from a noncentrosymmetric to a centrosymmetric average structure. [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1633,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-244955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-solar-power","category-sustainability"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244955\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}