Research on tandem solar cells. Volume 1. Final report. Volume 2. Appendices. Report for 15 May 1984-1 August 1985

Technical Report · Sat Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1986

OSTI ID:6206655

Borrego, J M; Ghandhi, S K

The various materials used to produce solar cells each convert a specific portion of the solar spectrum. Since most solar cells are made using material of one band gap of the solar spectrum, a significant portion of the sun's energy is left untapped if used inefficiently. In this project, two different materials -- gallium arsenide (GaAs) and germanium (Ge) -- were combined for the efficient use of a broader range of the solar spectrum. The tandem cells designed for the project use a top layer of aluminum gallium arsenide (AlGaAs) to act as a window, letting sunlight react with a layer of GaAs. Any portion of the solar spectrum not captured by the GaAs layer is passed through to the bottom layer of Ge for conversion. The solar-cell construction was designed and tested using computer simulations. Results indicate that this tandem cell design can be much more efficient than cells made from a single material. Higher efficiencies were found to be potentially achievable using AsGaAs-GaAs-Ge tandem solar cells than with single band-gap cells. The researchers also experimented with different fabrication techniques to produce these cells.

• Research Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst., Troy, NY (USA). Rensselaer Color Measurement Lab.
• OSTI ID: 6206655
• Report Number(s): PB-89-165914/XAB
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
140501* -- Solar Energy Conversion-- Photovoltaic Conversion
ALUMINIUM ARSENIDE SOLAR CELLS
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
CONVERSION
DIRECT ENERGY CONVERTERS
DOCUMENT TYPES
EFFICIENCY
ELEMENTS
ENERGY CONVERSION
EQUIPMENT
GALLIUM ARSENIDE SOLAR CELLS
GERMANIUM
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
METALS
PHOTOELECTRIC CELLS
PHOTOVOLTAIC CELLS
PROGRESS REPORT
SIMULATION
SOLAR CELLS
SOLAR ENERGY CONVERSION
SOLAR EQUIPMENT