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We investigate in this letter the intrinsic properties that have limited theefficiency of nanostructured intermediate band solar cells. Those devices takeadvantage of intra-band transitions, which occur on narrow energy width, andpresent low radiative recombination efficiency. We derive the minimumrequirements in terms of those two characteristics to achieve efficiencies inexcess of the Shockley-Queisser limit, and show that compatible nanostructuresare challenging to obtain. Especially, we evidence that currentlyexperimentally considered materials cannot overcome the best single junctioncells. In order to solve those issues, we consider devices including anelectronic ratchet mechanism. Firstly, such devices are shown to be much lesssensitive on the limitations of the nanostructures characteristics, so thatrequirements for high efficiencies can be met. Secondly, we show that quantumwell devices present advantages over their quantum dots counterparts, althoughthey have attracted much less interest so far.

An electronic ratchet is required in nanostructured intermediate band solar cells