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Title: Identification of the limiting factors for high-temperature GaAs, GaInP, and AlGaInP solar cells from device and carrier lifetime analysis

Journal Article · · Journal of Applied Physics
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5003631 · OSTI ID:1416721
 [1]; ORCiD logo [1];  [1];  [1];  [1]
  1. National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
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We analyze the temperature-dependent dark saturation current density and open-circuit voltage (VOC) for GaAs, GaInP, and AlGaInP solar cells from 25 to 400 degrees C. As expected, the intrinsic carrier concentration, ni, dominates the temperature dependence of the dark currents. However, at 400 degrees C, we measure VOC that is ~50 mV higher for the GaAs solar cell and ~60-110 mV lower for the GaInP and AlGaInP solar cells compared to what would be expected from commonly used solar cell models that consider only the ni2 temperature dependence. To better understand these deviations, we measure the carrier lifetimes of p-type GaAs, GaInP, and AlGaInP double heterostructures (DHs) from 25 to 400 degrees C using time-resolved photoluminescence. Temperature-dependent minority carrier lifetimes are analyzed to determine the relative contributions of the radiative recombination, interface recombination, Shockley-Read-Hall recombination, and thermionic emission processes. We find that radiative recombination dominates for the GaAs DHs with the effective lifetime approximately doubling as the temperature is increased from 25 degrees C to 400 degrees C. In contrast, we find that thermionic emission dominates for the GaInP and AlGaInP DHs at elevated temperatures, leading to a 3-4x reduction in the effective lifetime and ~40x increase in the surface recombination velocity as the temperature is increased from 25 degrees C to 400 degrees C. These observations suggest that optimization of the minority carrier confinement layers for the GaInP and AlGaInP solar cells could help to improve VOC and solar cell efficiency at elevated temperatures. We demonstrate VOC improvement at 200-400 degrees C in GaInP solar cells fabricated with modified AlGaInP window and back surface field layers.

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; AR0000508
OSTI ID:
1416721
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1414035
Report Number(s):
NREL/JA-5900-70767
Journal Information:
Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 122, Issue 23; ISSN 0021-8979
Publisher:
American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Cited By (2)

Measurement of the non-radiative minority recombination lifetime and the effective radiative recombination coefficient in GaAs journal April 2019
On the importance of the junction temperature on obtaining the charge transport parameters of a solar cell journal May 2019

Figures / Tables (8)

FIG. 1(p. 2)figure FIG. 1
FIG. 2(p. 5)figure FIG. 2
FIG. 3(p. 6)figure FIG. 3
FIG. 4(p. 6)figure FIG. 4
FIG. 5(p. 8)figure FIG. 5
FIG. 6(p. 9)figure FIG. 6
FIG. 7(p. 9)figure FIG. 7
FIG. 8(p. 10)figure FIG. 8

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