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 04:00:00 UTC 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.

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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

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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

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