Transition Metal Dichalcogenides Multijunction Solar Cells Toward the Multicolor Limit

Abstract: Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) and other van der Waals semiconductors enable transfer-printed, lattice-mismatch--free stacking of many photovoltaic junctions (N), motivating a re-examination of multijunction detailed-balance limits under realistic material and optical constraints. Here we develop an unlimited-junction detailed-balance framework for split-spectrum, multi-terminal vdW multijunction solar cells and apply it to a conservative TMD bandgap window (1.0-2.1 eV). Dynamic-programming optimization shows that the accessible bandgap window imposes a large-N efficiency limit: under full concentration, unconstrained ladders approach 84.5% at N=50, whereas the TMD window plateaus near 63.4%. This plateau is set by photons outside the gaps, so radiative quality and optics dominate beyond five junctions for realistic transfer-printed stacks. We identify an experimentally achievable N=5 ladder Eg~(2.10,1.78,1.50,1.24,1.00) eV and map each rung to candidate vdW/TMD absorbers. Using reciprocity and luminescence thermodynamics, we quantify penalties from finite external radiative efficiency, two-sided emission, and luminescent coupling, and we introduce the upward-emitted luminescence power as a computable entropy-loss proxy. Incorporating excitonic absorptance and nanophotonic thickness bounds yields practical thickness and light-management targets for transfer-printed stacks. Finally, inserting an idealized nonreciprocal multijunction model into the reciprocity-optimized ladders provides conservative headroom estimates, consistent with negligible benefit for single junctions but measurable gains for multijunction TMD stacks.