High-efficiency thin-film GaAs solar cells: Phase II. Final report

Technical Report · Sun Mar 15 04:00:00 EST 1981

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/6603182· OSTI ID:6603182

Yeh, Y C.M.

The feasibility of producing high-efficiency (15% or greater) thin-film gallium arsenide (GaAs) solar cells with costs suitable for terrestrial power generation was demonstrated by growing thin epi-GaAs films on suitably prepared low-cost substrates to replace the expensive single-crystal GaAs wafers used conventionally. These substrates are made of either recrystallized-Ge films previously deposited on metal substrates of epi-Ge films grown by cheimcal vapor deposition (CVD) on low-cost, low-grade single-crystal Si substrates. Thin GaAs epi layers with good crystallographic quality having been grown using a (100) Si-substrate on which a thin Ge epi-interlayer has first been grown by CVD from germane. Both anti-reflection coated metal oxide-semiconductor (AMOS) and n/sup +//p homojunction structures were studied. AMOS cells were fabricated on undoped-GaAs epi-layers deposited on bulk poly-Ge substrates using organo-metallic CVD film-growth, with the best achieved AMl conversion efficiency being 9.1%. Both p-type and n/sup +/-type GaAs growth have been optimized using 50 ppM dimethyl zinc and 1% hydrogen sulfide, respectively. A new direct GaAs deposition method in fabricating ultra-thin top layer, epitaxial n/sup +//p shallow homojunction solar cells on (100) GaAs substrates (without anodic thinning) was developed to produce large area (1 cm/sup 2/) cells, with 19.4% AMl conversion efficiency achieved. Additional, an AMl conversion efficiency of 18.4% (17.5% with 5% grid coverage) was achieved for a single-crystal GaAs n/sup +//p cell grown by OM-CVD on a Ge wafer.

• Research Organization: Jet Propulsion Lab., Pasadena, CA (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-77CH00178
• OSTI ID: 6603182
• Report Number(s): JPL-PUB-81-33
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
140501* -- Solar Energy Conversion-- Photovoltaic Conversion
ANTIREFLECTION COATINGS
ARSENIC COMPOUNDS
ARSENIDES
CHEMICAL COATING
CHEMICAL VAPOR DEPOSITION
COATINGS
COST
CRYSTAL GROWTH
CRYSTALS
DEPOSITION
DIRECT ENERGY CONVERTERS
EFFICIENCY
ELECTRIC CONTACTS
ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT
ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES
ELECTRON MICROSCOPY
ELEMENTS
EPITAXY
EQUIPMENT
FABRICATION
GALLIUM ARSENIDE SOLAR CELLS
GALLIUM ARSENIDES
GALLIUM COMPOUNDS
GERMANES
GERMANIUM
GERMANIUM COMPOUNDS
JUNCTIONS
METALS
MICROSCOPY
MONOCRYSTALS
MOS TRANSISTORS
P-N JUNCTIONS
PHOTOELECTRIC CELLS
PHOTOVOLTAIC CELLS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
PNICTIDES
POLYCRYSTALS
RECRYSTALLIZATION
REFRACTORY METALS
SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPY
SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES
SEMICONDUCTOR JUNCTIONS
SEMIMETALS
SILICON
SOLAR CELLS
SOLAR EQUIPMENT
SUBSTRATES
SURFACE COATING
TRANSISTORS
TRANSITION ELEMENTS
TUNGSTEN