InAlAs photovoltaic cell design for high device efficiency

Smith, Brittany L.; Bittner, Zachary S.; Hellstroem, Staffan D.; Nelson, George T.; Slocum, Michael A.; Norman, Andrew G.; Forbes, David V.; Hubbard, Seth M.

doi:10.1002/pip.2895

Title: InAlAs photovoltaic cell design for high device efficiency

Journal Article · Mon Apr 17 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Progress in Photovoltaics

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/pip.2895 · OSTI ID:1374129

^[1]; Bittner, Zachary S. ^[1]; Hellstroem, Staffan D. ^[1]; Nelson, George T. ^[1]; Slocum, Michael A. ^[1];

^[2]; Forbes, David V. ^[1];

^[1]

Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY (United States)
National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

This study presents a new design for a single-junction InAlAs solar cell, which reduces parasitic absorption losses from the low band-gap contact layer while maintaining a functional window layer by integrating a selective etch stop. The etch stop is then removed prior to depositing an anti-reflective coating. The final cell had a 17.9% efficiency under 1-sun AM1.5 with an anti-reflective coating. Minority carrier diffusion lengths were extracted from external quantum efficiency data using physics-based device simulation software yielding 170 nm in the n-type emitter and 4.6 um in the p-type base, which is more than four times the diffusion length previously reported for a p-type InAlAs base. In conclusion, this report represents significant progress towards a high-performance InAlAs top cell for a triple-junction design lattice-matched to InP.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Cite

Export

Save

Research Organization:: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC36-08GO28308

OSTI ID:: 1374129

Report Number(s):: NREL/JA--5K00-69002

Journal Information:: Progress in Photovoltaics, Journal Name: Progress in Photovoltaics Journal Issue: 8 Vol. 25; ISSN 1062-7995

Publisher:: WileyCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

References (20)

Wafer-Scale Strain Engineering of Ultrathin Semiconductor Crystalline Layers Leite, Marina S.; Warmann, Emily C.; Kimball, Gregory M. Advanced Materials https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201101309	journal	July 2011
Surface recombination velocity and lifetime in InP Bothra, S.; Tyagi, S.; Ghandhi, S. K. Solid-State Electronics, Vol. 34, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1016/0038-1101(91)90199-9	journal	January 1991
Refractive indices of InAlAs and InGaAs/InP from 250 to 1900 nm determined by spectroscopic ellipsometry Dinges, H. W.; Burkhard, H.; Lösch, R. Applied Surface Science, Vol. 54 https://doi.org/10.1016/0169-4332(92)90090-K	journal	January 1992
Series resistance effects on solar cell measurements Wolf, Martin; Rauschenbach, Hans Advanced Energy Conversion, Vol. 3, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1016/0365-1789(63)90063-8	journal	April 1963
Observation of phase separation and ordering in the InAlAs epilayer grown on InP at the low temperature Cho, H. K.; Lee, J. Y.; Kwon, M. S. Materials Science and Engineering: B, Vol. 64, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0921-5107(99)00179-8	journal	October 1999
Band parameters for III–V compound semiconductors and their alloys Vurgaftman, I.; Meyer, J. R.; Ram-Mohan, L. R. Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 89, Issue 11, p. 5815-5875 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1368156	journal	June 2001
Wide-band-gap InAlAs solar cell for an alternative multijunction approach Leite, Marina S.; Woo, Robyn L.; Hong, William D. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 98, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3531756	journal	February 2011
The effect of growth temperature on the electrical properties of AlInAs/InP grown by molecular beam epitaxy and metal‐organic chemical‐vapor deposition Luo, J. K.; Thomas, H.; Clark, S. A. Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 74, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.355069	journal	December 1993
Towards an optimized all lattice-matched InAlAs/InGaAsP/InGaAs multijunction solar cell with efficiency >50% Leite, Marina S.; Woo, Robyn L.; Munday, Jeremy N. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 102, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4758300	journal	January 2013
InAlAs solar cell on a GaAs substrate employing a graded In _x Ga _1−x As–InP metamorphic buffer layer Mathews, Ian; O'Mahony, Donagh; Gocalinska, Agnieszka Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 102, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4789521	journal	January 2013
Compositional dependence of band‐gap energy and conduction‐band effective mass of In _{1− x − y} Ga _x Al _y As lattice matched to InP Olego, D.; Chang, T. Y.; Silberg, E. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 41, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.93537	journal	September 1982
Direct energy gap of Al _{1− x} In _x As lattice matched to InP Wakefield, B.; Halliwell, M. A. G.; Kerr, T. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 44, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.94726	journal	February 1984
InGaAs/InAlAs HEMT with a strained InGaP Schottky contact layer Fujita, S.; Noda, T.; Nozaki, C. IEEE Electron Device Letters, Vol. 14, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1109/55.215186	journal	May 1993
Resonant-cavity InGaAs-InAlAs avalanche photodiodes with gain-bandwidth product of 290 GHz Lenox, C.; Nie, H.; Yuan, P. IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, Vol. 11, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1109/68.784238	journal	September 1999
27.6% Conversion efficiency, a new record for single-junction solar cells under 1 sun illumination Kayes, Brendan M.; Nie, Hui; Twist, Rose 2011 37th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC) https://doi.org/10.1109/PVSC.2011.6185831	conference	June 2011
First demonstration of monolithic InP-based InAlAs/InGaAsP/InGaAs triple junction solar cells Woo, Robyn L.; Hong, William D.; Mesropian, Shoghig 2011 37th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC) https://doi.org/10.1109/PVSC.2011.6185903	conference	June 2011
InAlAs epitaxial growth for wide band gap solar cells Leite, Marina S.; Woo, Robyn L.; Hong, William D. 2011 37th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC) https://doi.org/10.1109/PVSC.2011.6186070	conference	June 2011
Evaluation of strained InAlAs as a window layer for wide bandgap materials lattice matched to InP Yakes, Michael K.; Schmieder, Kenneth J.; Lumb, Matthew P. 2015 IEEE 42nd Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC), 2015 IEEE 42nd Photovoltaic Specialist Conference (PVSC) https://doi.org/10.1109/PVSC.2015.7356068	conference	June 2015
Modeling and analysis of multijunction solar cells González, María; Chan, Ngai; Ekins-Daukes, Nicholas J. SPIE OPTO, SPIE Proceedings https://doi.org/10.1117/12.875757	conference	February 2011
Simulation of novel InAlAsSb solar cells Lumb, Matthew P.; Gonzalez, Maria; Vurgaftman, Igor SPIE OPTO, SPIE Proceedings https://doi.org/10.1117/12.909324	conference	February 2012

Cited By (2)

Contactless electroreflectance study of the surface potential barrier in n -type and p -type InAlAs van Hoof structures lattice matched to InP Tolloczko, A.; Kopaczek, J.; Szukiewicz, R. Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, Vol. 51, Issue 21 https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6463/aabf6b	journal	May 2018
Electron transport in the solar-relevant InAlAs Welland, Ian; Ferry, David K. Semiconductor Science and Technology, Vol. 34, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6641/ab16fd	journal	May 2019

Similar Records

Photovoltaic cell and production thereof

Patent · Tue Jul 22 00:00:00 EDT 2008 · OSTI ID:984454

Narayanan, Srinivasamohan; Kumar, Bikash

InGaP/GaAs and InGaAs mechanically-stacked triple-junction solar cells

Book · Tue Dec 30 23:00:00 EST 1997 · OSTI ID:304434

Takamoto, T; Ikeda, E; Agui, T

High conversion efficiency and high radiation resistance InP homojunction solar cells

Journal Article · Wed Mar 14 23:00:00 EST 1984 · Appl. Phys. Lett.; (United States) · OSTI ID:5162960

Yamamoto, A; Yamaguchi, M; Uemura, C

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
InAlAs
InP
MOVPE
multijunction solar cell

Title: InAlAs photovoltaic cell design for high device efficiency

Citation Formats

References (20)

Cited By (2)

Similar Records

Related Subjects