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

Title: High Performance GaAs Solar Cells Grown at High Growth Rates by Atmospheric-Pressure Dynamic Hydride Vapor Phase Epitaxy

Conference ·

We report GaAs solar cells grown at rates exceeding 300 um/h by atmospheric-pressure dynamic hydride vapor phase epitaxy (D-HVPE). The surface morphology of the GaAs layers grown at those rates is smooth, with root mean square surface roughness of < 1.4 nm. We grew GaAs solar cells at rates from 35 - 309 um/h with negligible degradation in open circuit voltages (VOC), which ranged from 1.04 - 1.07 V. We showed the slight decrease in VOC is due to lack of doping optimization at higher growth rates. Deep level transient spectroscopy measurements showed low point defect densities that increases slightly with growth rate from 35 - 309 um/h. The low point defect concentrations and the high VOCs indicate that high material quality can be maintained at these extremely high growth rates, enabling the deposition of high efficiency cells in mere seconds instead of hours.

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:
1603889
Report Number(s):
NREL/CP-5900-74186
Resource Relation:
Conference: Presented at the 2019 IEEE 46th Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC), 16-21 June 2019, Chicago, Illinois
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

Similar Records

Gallium arsenide solar cells grown at rates exceeding 300 µm h−1 by hydride vapor phase epitaxy
Journal Article · Fri Jul 26 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · Nature Communications · OSTI ID:1603889

High growth rate hydride vapor phase epitaxy at low temperature through use of uncracked hydrides
Journal Article · Mon Jan 22 00:00:00 EST 2018 · Applied Physics Letters · OSTI ID:1603889

Uniformity of GaAs solar cells grown in a kinetically-limited regime by dynamic hydride vapor phase epitaxy
Journal Article · Wed Apr 24 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells · OSTI ID:1603889