Empirically detecting colour: can we use solar cells as colour sensors?

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis was to explore the possibility of using solar cells as a colour sensor. Colour sensors already exist, yet they are either costly or fail at correctly sensing monochromatic light. Our experiment was set up in order to see if a solar cell would create a unique current response to a specific monochromatic wavelength. We tested our solar cells by measuring their individual current response at different voltages with different monochromatic light inputs. We concluded that the use of a single solar cell is not a feasible colour sensor due to high Delta E values. We then combined the colour matching functions of multiple solar cells. The Micromorph and DSSC combination had a lower Delta E average value in comparison to all single solar cells tested. At a light bandwidth of 60 nm, a Delta E value of less than 10 was achieved.