Optically enhanced photon recycling in mechanically stacked multijunction solar cells

Steiner, Myles A.; Geisz, John F.; Ward, J. Scott; Garcia, Ivan; Friedman, Daniel J.; King, Richard R.; Chiu, Philip T.; France, Ryan M.; Duda, Anna; Olavarria, Waldo J.; Young, Michelle; Kurtz, Sarah R.

doi:10.1109/JPHOTOV.2015.2494690

Title: Optically enhanced photon recycling in mechanically stacked multijunction solar cells

Abstract

Multijunction solar cells can be fabricated by mechanically bonding together component cells that are grown separately. Here, we present four-junction four-terminal mechanical stacks composed of GaInP/GaAs tandems grown on GaAs substrates and GaInAsP/GaInAs tandems grown on InP substrates. The component cells were bonded together with a low-index transparent epoxy that acts as an angularly selective reflector to the GaAs bandedge luminescence, while simultaneously transmitting nearly all of the subbandgap light. As determined by electroluminescence measurements and optical modeling, the GaAs subcell demonstrates a higher internal radiative limit and, thus, higher subcell voltage, compared with GaAs subcells without the epoxy reflector. The best cells demonstrate 38.8 ± 1.0% efficiency under the global spectrum at 1000 W/m² and ~ 42% under the direct spectrum at ~100 suns. As a result, eliminating the series resistance is the key challenge for further improving the concentrator cells.

Authors:

Steiner, Myles A. ^[1]; Geisz, John F. ^[1]; Ward, J. Scott ^[1]; Garcia, Ivan ^[2]; Friedman, Daniel J. ^[1]; King, Richard R. ^[3]; Chiu, Philip T. ^[4]; France, Ryan M. ^[1]; Duda, Anna ^[1]; Olavarria, Waldo J. ^[1]; Young, Michelle ^[1]; Kurtz, Sarah R. ^[1]

National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Univ. Politecnica de Madrid (Spain)
Arizona State Univ., Tempe, AZ (United States)
Boeing-Spectrolab, Sylmar, CA (United States)

Publication Date:: Mon Nov 09 00:00:00 EST 2015

Research Org.:: National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office

OSTI Identifier:: 1237302

Report Number(s):: NREL/JA-5J00-64445
Journal ID: ISSN 2156-3381

Grant/Contract Number:: AC36-08GO28308

Resource Type:: Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:: IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics

Additional Journal Information:: Journal Volume: 6; Journal Issue: 1; Related Information: IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics; Journal ID: ISSN 2156-3381

Publisher:: IEEE

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 14 SOLAR ENERGY; 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; four-junction; GaInP; GaAs; GaInAsP; GaInAs; InP; subcell voltage; efficiency; series resistance; multijunction solar cell; mechanical stack; photon recycling; luminescent coupling; III-V solar cell

Citation Formats


                    Steiner, Myles A., Geisz, John F., Ward, J. Scott, Garcia, Ivan, Friedman, Daniel J., King, Richard R., Chiu, Philip T., France, Ryan M., Duda, Anna, Olavarria, Waldo J., Young, Michelle, and Kurtz, Sarah R. Optically enhanced photon recycling in mechanically stacked multijunction solar cells.  United States: N. p., 2015. 
Web.  doi:10.1109/JPHOTOV.2015.2494690.

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                    Steiner, Myles A., Geisz, John F., Ward, J. Scott, Garcia, Ivan, Friedman, Daniel J., King, Richard R., Chiu, Philip T., France, Ryan M., Duda, Anna, Olavarria, Waldo J., Young, Michelle, & Kurtz, Sarah R. Optically enhanced photon recycling in mechanically stacked multijunction solar cells.  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1109/JPHOTOV.2015.2494690

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                    Steiner, Myles A., Geisz, John F., Ward, J. Scott, Garcia, Ivan, Friedman, Daniel J., King, Richard R., Chiu, Philip T., France, Ryan M., Duda, Anna, Olavarria, Waldo J., Young, Michelle, and Kurtz, Sarah R. Mon .  
"Optically enhanced photon recycling in mechanically stacked multijunction solar cells".  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1109/JPHOTOV.2015.2494690.  https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1237302.

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@article{osti_1237302,

  title        = {Optically enhanced photon recycling in mechanically stacked multijunction solar cells},

  author       = {Steiner, Myles A. and Geisz, John F. and Ward, J. Scott and Garcia, Ivan and Friedman, Daniel J. and King, Richard R. and Chiu, Philip T. and France, Ryan M. and Duda, Anna and Olavarria, Waldo J. and Young, Michelle and Kurtz, Sarah R.},

  abstractNote = {Multijunction solar cells can be fabricated by mechanically bonding together component cells that are grown separately. Here, we present four-junction four-terminal mechanical stacks composed of GaInP/GaAs tandems grown on GaAs substrates and GaInAsP/GaInAs tandems grown on InP substrates. The component cells were bonded together with a low-index transparent epoxy that acts as an angularly selective reflector to the GaAs bandedge luminescence, while simultaneously transmitting nearly all of the subbandgap light. As determined by electroluminescence measurements and optical modeling, the GaAs subcell demonstrates a higher internal radiative limit and, thus, higher subcell voltage, compared with GaAs subcells without the epoxy reflector. The best cells demonstrate 38.8 ± 1.0% efficiency under the global spectrum at 1000 W/m2 and ~ 42% under the direct spectrum at ~100 suns. As a result, eliminating the series resistance is the key challenge for further improving the concentrator cells.},

  doi          = {10.1109/JPHOTOV.2015.2494690},

  journal      = {IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics},

  number       = 1,

  volume       = 6,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {Mon Nov 09 00:00:00 EST 2015},

  month        = {Mon Nov 09 00:00:00 EST 2015}

}

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Works referencing / citing this record:

GaSb-Based Solar Cells for Full Solar Spectrum Energy Harvesting
journal, July 2017

Lumb, Matthew P.; Mack, Shawn; Schmieder, Kenneth J.
Advanced Energy Materials, Vol. 7, Issue 20
DOI: 10.1002/aenm.201700345

Measurement of strong photon recycling in ultra-thin GaAs n/p junctions monolithically integrated in high-photovoltage vertical epitaxial heterostructure architectures with conversion efficiencies exceeding 60%
journal, December 2016

Proulx, F.; York, M. C. A.; Provost, P. O.
physica status solidi (RRL) - Rapid Research Letters, Vol. 11, Issue 2
DOI: 10.1002/pssr.201600385

Experimental Determination of Power Losses and Heat Generation in Solar Cells for Photovoltaic-Thermal Applications
journal, August 2018

Lorenzi, Bruno; Acciarri, Maurizio; Narducci, Dario
Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance, Vol. 27, Issue 12
DOI: 10.1007/s11665-018-3604-3

Raising the one-sun conversion efficiency of III–V/Si solar cells to 32.8% for two junctions and 35.9% for three junctions
journal, August 2017

Essig, Stephanie; Allebé, Christophe; Remo, Timothy
Nature Energy, Vol. 2, Issue 9
DOI: 10.1038/nenergy.2017.144

Electroluminescent refrigeration by ultra-efficient GaAs light-emitting diodes
journal, May 2018

Xiao, T. Patrick; Chen, Kaifeng; Santhanam, Parthiban
Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 123, Issue 17
DOI: 10.1063/1.5019764

Impact of nanometer air gaps on photon recycling in mechanically stacked multi-junction solar cells
journal, January 2019

Tayagaki, Takeshi; Makita, Kikuo; Oshima, Ryuji
Optics Express, Vol. 27, Issue 4
DOI: 10.1364/oe.27.0000a1

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Title: Optically enhanced photon recycling in mechanically stacked multijunction solar cells

Abstract

Citation Formats

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GaSb-Based Solar Cells for Full Solar Spectrum Energy Harvesting
journal, July 2017

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