Residual Stress Modeling in Quantum Dots

One of the possible applications of the quantum dots is in a new generation of photovoltaic cells. Theory predicts the efficiency of these based solar cells to be up to 63 percent, which is substantially higher than the theoretical limits existing in mono crystal solar cells (34%) or hetero junction (39 % three junctions and 42 % four junctions). The differences in thermoelastic properties between the quantum dots and substrate materials, such as thermal expansion and lattice mismatch, will cause residual stresses. These stresses in turn will affect the electronic and transport properties in the quantum dots. With the available thermoelastic properties and finite element modeling method, the residual stress distribution will be studied. Various factors, such as geometry, thickness and size, will be discussed.