A Markov Chain Approach for Defining the Fundamental Efficiency Limits of Classical and Bifacial Multi-junction Tandem Solar Cells

Bifacial tandem cells promise to reduce three fundamental losses (above-bandgap, below bandgap, and the uncollected light between panels) inherent in classical single junction PV systems. The successive filtering of light through the bandgap cascade, and requirement of current continuity make optimization of tandem cells difficult, accessible only to numerical solution through computer modeling. The challenge is even more complicated for bifacial design. In this paper, we use an elegantly simple Markov chain approach to show that the essential physics of optimization is intuitively obvious, and deeply insightful results can obtained analytically with a few lines of algebra. This powerful approach reproduces, as special cases, all the known results of traditional/bifacial tandem cells, and highlights the asymptotic efficiency gain of these technologies.