Light-trapping and recycling for extraordinary power conversion in ultra-thin gallium-arsenide solar cells

Eyderman, Sergey; John, Sajeev

doi:10.1038/srep28303

Light-trapping and recycling for extraordinary power conversion in ultra-thin gallium-arsenide solar cells

Journal Article · Thu Jun 23 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · Scientific Reports

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/srep28303· OSTI ID:1285868

Eyderman, Sergey ^[1]; John, Sajeev ^[2]

Univ. of Toronto, Toronto, ON (Canada). Dept. of Physics; Univ. of Toronto, Ontario (Canada). Dept. of Physics
Univ. of Toronto, Toronto, ON (Canada). Dept. of Physics

Here, we demonstrate nearly 30% power conversion efficiency in ultra-thin (~200 nm) gallium arsenide photonic crystal solar cells by numerical solution of the coupled electromagnetic Maxwell and semiconductor drift-diffusion equations. Our architecture enables wave-interference-induced solar light trapping in the wavelength range from 300-865 nm, leading to absorption of almost 90% of incoming sunlight. Our optimized design for 200 nm equivalent bulk thickness of GaAs, is a square-lattice, slanted conical-pore photonic crystal (lattice constant 550 nm, pore diameter 600 nm, and pore depth 290 nm), passivated with AlGaAs, deposited on a silver back-reflector, with ITO upper contact and encapsulated with SiO₂. Our model includes both radiative and non-radiative recombination of photo-generated charge carriers. When all light from radiative recombination is assumed to escape the structure, a maximum achievable photocurrent density (MAPD) of 27.6 mA/cm² is obtained from normally incident AM 1.5 sunlight. For a surface non-radiative recombination velocity of 10³ cm/s, this corresponds to a solar power conversion efficiency of 28.3%. When all light from radiative recombination is trapped and reabsorbed (complete photon recycling) the power conversion efficiency increases to 29%. If the surface recombination velocity is reduced to 10 cm/sec, photon recycling is much more effective and the power conversion efficiency reaches 30.6%.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Univ. of Toronto, Toronto, ON (Canada)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: FG02-06ER46347

OSTI ID:: 1285868

Journal Information:: Scientific Reports, Journal Name: Scientific Reports Vol. 6; ISSN 2045-2322

Publisher:: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Photon recycling characteristics of InGaAs/GaAsP multiple quantum well solar cells incorporating a spectrally selective filter and distributed Bragg reflector Hong, Chung-Yu; Wang, Yi-Chin; Su, Yu-Chih Optics Express, Vol. 27, Issue 25 https://doi.org/10.1364/oe.27.036046	journal	January 2019

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