InAlAs photovoltaic cell design for high device efficiency

Smith, Brittany L.; Bittner, Zachary S.; Hellstroem, Staffan D.; Nelson, George T.; Slocum, Michael A.; Norman, Andrew G.; Forbes, David V.; Hubbard, Seth M.

doi:10.1002/pip.2895

Title: InAlAs photovoltaic cell design for high device efficiency

Journal Article · Mon Apr 17 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Progress in Photovoltaics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/pip.2895· OSTI ID:1374129

^[1]; Bittner, Zachary S. ^[1]; Hellstroem, Staffan D. ^[1]; Nelson, George T. ^[1]; Slocum, Michael A. ^[1];

^[2]; Forbes, David V. ^[1];

^[1]

Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY (United States)
National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

Abstract This study presents a new design for a single‐junction InAlAs solar cell, which reduces parasitic absorption losses from the low band‐gap contact layer while maintaining a functional window layer by integrating a selective etch stop. The etch stop is then removed prior to depositing an anti‐reflective coating. The final cell had a 17.9% efficiency under 1‐sun AM1.5 with an anti‐reflective coating. Minority carrier diffusion lengths were extracted from external quantum efficiency data using physics‐based device simulation software yielding 170 nm in the n‐type emitter and 4.6 μm in the p‐type base, which is more than four times the diffusion length previously reported for a p‐type InAlAs base. This report represents significant progress towards a high‐performance InAlAs top cell for a triple‐junction design lattice‐matched to InP. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Research Organization:: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC36-08GO28308

OSTI ID:: 1374129

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1401536

Report Number(s):: NREL/JA-5K00-69002

Journal Information:: Progress in Photovoltaics, Vol. 25, Issue 8; ISSN 1062-7995

Publisher:: WileyCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 7 works

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References (20)

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Cited By (2)

Contactless electroreflectance study of the surface potential barrier in n -type and p -type InAlAs van Hoof structures lattice matched to InP Tolloczko, A.; Kopaczek, J.; Szukiewicz, R. Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, Vol. 51, Issue 21 https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6463/aabf6b	journal	May 2018
Electron transport in the solar-relevant InAlAs Welland, Ian; Ferry, David K. Semiconductor Science and Technology, Vol. 34, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6641/ab16fd	journal	May 2019

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