skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: InGaAsP Solar Cells Grown by Hydride Vapor Phase Epitaxy

Conference ·

Hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) has recently reemerged as a low-cost, high-throughput alternative to metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) for the growth of high-efficiency III-V solar cells. Quaternary InGaAsP solar cells in the bandgap range of ~1.7-1.8 eV are promising top-cell candidates for integration in Ill-V/Si tandem cells with projected one-sun efficiencies exceeding 30%. In this work, we report on the development of lattice-matched InGaAsP solar cells grown on GaAs substrates via HVPE at very high growth rates of ~0.7 um/min. We demonstrate prototype 1.7 eV InGaAsP solar cells with an open-circuit voltage of 1.11 V. The short-circuit current is limited by the lack of a window layer in these early stage devices. The photo response of 1.7 InGaAsP solar cell with ~1.1 um thick base layer is found to be nearly insensitive to variation in p-type base doping concentration in the range from Na - 4x1016 to - 1x1017 cm-3, indicating an effective carrier collection length on the order of - 1.1 um or higher in our devices. These initial InGaAsP cell results are encouraging and highlight the viability of HVPE to produce mixed arsenide-phosphide solar cells grown lattice-matched on GaAs.

Research Organization:
National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office
DOE Contract Number:
AC36-08GO28308
OSTI ID:
1343662
Report Number(s):
NREL/CP-5J00-65752
Resource Relation:
Conference: Presented at the 2016 IEEE 43rd Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC), 5-10 June 2016, Portland, Oregon
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English