Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Multijunction solar cells with graded buffer Bragg reflectors

Patent ·
OSTI ID:1860187

Distributed Bragg reflectors are incorporated into the compositionally graded buffers of metamorphic solar cells, adding functionality to the buffer without adding cost. The reflection aids in collection in subcells that are optically thin due to low diffusion length, high bulk recombination, radiation hardness, partially-absorbing quantum structures, or simply for cost savings. Performance enhancements are demonstrated in GaAs subcells with QWs, which is beneficial when GaAs is not the ideal bandgap.

Research Organization:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
DOE Contract Number:
AC36-08GO28308
Assignee:
Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC (Golden, CO); California Institute of Technology (Pasadena, CA)
Patent Number(s):
11,205,734
Application Number:
16/283,375
OSTI ID:
1860187
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (18)

Short-circuit current enhancement in Bragg stack multi-quantum-well solar cells for multi-junction space cell applications journal January 2003
Reduction of crosshatch roughness and threading dislocation density in metamorphic GaInP buffers and GaInAs solar cells journal May 2012
40.8% efficient inverted triple-junction solar cell with two independently metamorphic junctions journal September 2008
Approximate calculation of the reflection coefficient from a stratified medium journal September 1995
Strategies for Thinning Graded Buffer Regions in Metamorphic Solar Cells and Performance Tradeoffs journal September 2018
Metamorphic epitaxy for multijunction solar cells journal March 2016
Multijunction GaInP/GaInAs/Ge solar cells with Bragg reflectors journal December 2010
Pushing Inverted Metamorphic Multijunction Solar Cells Toward Higher Efficiency at Realistic Operating Conditions journal April 2013
Design Flexibility of Ultrahigh Efficiency Four-Junction Inverted Metamorphic Solar Cells journal March 2016
Band gap-voltage offset and energy production in next-generation multijunction solar cells journal November 2010
III-V compounds for solar cell applications journal June 1999
High-efficiency GaInP∕GaAs∕InGaAs triple-junction solar cells grown inverted with a metamorphic bottom junction journal July 2007
Effect of Atmospheric Absorption Bands on the Optimal Design of Multijunction Solar Cells
  • McMahon, William E.; Friedman, Daniel J.; Geisz, John F.
  • 2017 IEEE 44th Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC), 2017 IEEE 44th Photovoltaic Specialist Conference (PVSC) https://doi.org/10.1109/PVSC.2017.8366209
conference June 2017
Lightwave applications of fiber Bragg gratings journal January 1997
Highly Transparent Compositionally Graded Buffers for New Metamorphic Multijunction Solar Cell Designs journal January 2017
Thin, high quality GaInP compositionally graded buffer layers grown at high growth rates for metamorphic III–V solar cell applications journal May 2014
Quadruple-Junction Inverted Metamorphic Concentrator Devices journal January 2015
Generalized Optoelectronic Model of Series-Connected Multijunction Solar Cells journal November 2015

Similar Records

Multijunction Solar Cells With Graded Buffer Bragg Reflectors
Journal Article · Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics · OSTI ID:1478616

Graded Buffer Bragg Reflectors with High Reflectivity and Transparency for Metamorphic Optoelectronics
Journal Article · Tue May 04 00:00:00 EDT 2021 · Journal of Applied Physics · OSTI ID:1784883

Graded buffer Bragg reflectors with high reflectivity and transparency for metamorphic optoelectronics
Journal Article · Tue May 04 00:00:00 EDT 2021 · Journal of Applied Physics · OSTI ID:1781443

Related Subjects