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Building a Six-Junction Inverted Metamorphic Concentrator Solar Cell

Journal Article · · IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1]
  1. National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations
We propose practical six-junction (6J) inverted metamorphic multijunction (IMM) concentrator solar cell designs with the potential to exceed 50% efficiency using moderately high quality junction materials. We demonstrate the top three junctions and their monolithic integration lattice matched to GaAs using 2.1-eV AlGaInP, 1.7-eV AlGaAs or GaInAsP, and 1.4-eV GaAs with external radiative efficiencies >0.1%. We demonstrate tunnel junctions with peak tunneling current >400 A/cm2 that are transparent to <2.1-eV light. We compare the bottom three GaInAs(p) junctions with bandgaps of 1.2, 1.0, and 0.7 eV grown on InP and transparent metamorphic grades with low dislocation densities. The solution to an integration challenge resulting from Zn diffusion in the GaAs junction is illustrated in a five-junction IMM. Excellent 1-sun performance is demonstrated in a complete 6J IMM device with VOC = 5.15 V, and a promising pathway toward >50% efficiency at high concentrations is presented.
Research Organization:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Solar Energy Technologies Office (EE-4S)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC36-08GO28308
OSTI ID:
1417798
Report Number(s):
NREL/JA--5J00-68675
Journal Information:
IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics, Journal Name: IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 8; ISSN 2156-3381
Publisher:
IEEECopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

Cited By (7)

Printed assemblies of microscale triple‐junction inverted metamorphic GaInP/GaAs/InGaAs solar cells journal March 2019
Solar cell efficiency tables (version 54) journal June 2019
Solar cell efficiency tables (Version 55)
  • Green, Martin A.; Dunlop, Ewan D.; Hohl‐Ebinger, Jochen
  • Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications, Vol. 28, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1002/pip.3228
journal December 2019
Growth of InGaAs Solar Cells on InP(001) Miscut Substrates Using Solid‐Source Molecular Beam Epitaxy journal September 2019
Six-junction concentrator solar cells
  • Geisz, John F.; Steiner, Myles A.; Schulte, Kevin L.
  • 14TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CONCENTRATOR PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEMS (CPV-14), AIP Conference Proceedings https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5053512
conference January 2018
Simulating the Performance of Al 0.3 Ga 0.7 As/InP/Ge Multijunction Solar Cells under Variation of Spectral Irradiance and Temperature journal February 2019
Non-Curing Thermal Interface Materials with Graphene Fillers for Thermal Management of Concentrated Photovoltaic Solar Cells journal December 2019

Figures / Tables (9)

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Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
III-V semiconductor alloys
concentrator solar cells
inverted metamorphic multijunction photovoltaics