Electronic states and tunnelling transport in an array of quantum dots with arbitrary shapes

Quantum Dots (QDs) are the working material in third generation photovoltaic cells, especially in all Si tandem solar cells and energy selective contacts (ESC) for Hot Carrier Solar Cells (HC-SCs). Optical and electronic properties of these QDs depend on their size and shape in dielectric matrix. Recently developed characterization techniques have shown that self assembled QDs cannot be described by straightforward mathematical shapes, which makes these calculations extremely difficult to carry out using conventional methods. We have developed an efficient numerical model based on Full Multi Grid (FMG) methods for 3-dimensional (3-D) analysis of the electronic properties of complex shaped QDs. The electronic states were calculated by self-consistently solving the Schrödinger-Poisson system with Exchange interactions. The model was used on realistic QD morphologies and their electronic states were compared with regular shapes.