Advantages of quantum well solar cells for TPV

Journal Article · Sat Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1997 · AIP Conference Proceedings

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.53282· OSTI ID:577804

Griffin, P; Ballard, I; Barnham, K; Nelson, J; Zachariou, A ^[1]; Button, C; Hopkinson, M; Pate, M ^[2]

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1. EXSS Group, Department of Physics, Imperial College, London SW7 2BZ (United Kingdom)
2. EPSRC III-V Facility, University of Sheffield, Sheffield (United Kingdom)

We discuss the advantages of quantum well solar cells (QWSCs) for thermophotovoltaic (TPV) applications and illustrate them with a test cell grown in GaInAsP/InGaAs lattice-matched to InP but not optimised for TPV. It is shown that a GaInAsP quaternary cell with a bandgap of 1.1 {mu}m with 60 InGaAs QWs has an open circuit voltage of (1.7{plus_minus}0.1) times that of a homogeneous InGaAs cell under a narrow band ytterbia-like illuminating spectrum. Similar enhancements are observed under an erbia-like illumination and in a broad band illumination approximating a black body at 3000K. The quaternary cell absorbs a similar range of wavelengths close to the InGaAs cell. Also, better temperature coefficients for the QWSC than the control cell are observed in a spectrum approximating a black body at 3000K. A comparison is made between the QWSC and two other cells, one InGaAs and one Si, using published spectral response and illuminated current/voltage data. It is shown that whilst InGaAs has a higher power output in black body spectra and Si a higher power output in an ideal ytterbia spectra the QWSC has the highest output in a combination of 2000K black body and ytterbia spectra where 56{percent} of the power output is in the ytterbia emission band. Possible improvements to this non-optimised QWSC are discussed. {copyright} {ital 1997 American Institute of Physics.}

• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• OSTI ID: 577804
• Report Number(s): CONF-9705119--
• Journal Information: AIP Conference Proceedings, Journal Name: AIP Conference Proceedings Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 401; ISSN 0094-243X; ISSN APCPCS
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES
GALLIUM ARSENIDES
GALLIUM PHOSPHIDES
INDIUM ARSENIDES
INDIUM PHOSPHIDES
INFRARED SPECTRA
QUANTUM EFFICIENCY
SILICON
SOLAR CELLS
THERMOPHOTOVOLTAIC CONVERSION