Significant improvement of conversion efficiency by passivation of low-angle grain boundaries in flexible low-cost single-crystal-like GaAs thin-film solar cells directly deposited on metal tape

Pouladi, Sara; Favela, Carlos; Wang, Weijie; Moradnia, Mina; Kim, Nam-In; Shervin, Shahab; Chen, Jie; Sharma, Sahil; Yang, Guang; Nguyen, Manh-Cuong; Choi, Rino; Kim, Jiyoung; Fedorenko, Anastasiia; Bogner, Brandon; Bao, Jiming; Hubbard, Seth M.; Selvamanickam, Venkat; Ryou, Jae-Hyun

doi:10.1016/j.solmat.2022.111791

Title: Significant improvement of conversion efficiency by passivation of low-angle grain boundaries in flexible low-cost single-crystal-like GaAs thin-film solar cells directly deposited on metal tape

Journal Article · 13 May 2022 · Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2022.111791 · OSTI ID:1977664

Pouladi, Sara ^[1]; Favela, Carlos ^[2]; Wang, Weijie ^[2]; Moradnia, Mina ^[2]; Kim, Nam-In ^[2]; Shervin, Shahab ^[2]; Chen, Jie ^[2]; Sharma, Sahil ^[2]; Yang, Guang ^[2];

^[3]; Choi, Rino ^[3]; Kim, Jiyoung ^[4]; Fedorenko, Anastasiia ^[5]; Bogner, Brandon ^[5]; Bao, Jiming ^[2];

^[5]; Selvamanickam, Venkat ^[2]; Ryou, Jae-Hyun ^[2]

Univ. of Houston, TX (United States); OSTI
Univ. of Houston, TX (United States)
Inha University, Incheon (South Korea)
Univ. of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX (United States)
Rochester Inst. of Technology, Rochester, NY (United States)

We develop an easily implementable yet effective process to achieve high power conversion efficiency in newly-developed flexible single-crystal-like GaAs thin-film photovoltaic solar cells on cheap metal tape. We study various techniques on the fabricated devices to passivate the defect states associated with dangling bonds at low-angle grain boundaries (LA-GBs) existing in the single-crystal-like GaAs material. We report that sulfur by trioctylphosphine sulfide (TOP:S) solution treatment can partially but effectively passivate the defect states at the LA-GBs to increase all the solar cell performance parameters of open-circuit voltage VOC (33.2%), short-circuit current JSC (19.5%), and fill factor FF (25.8%), resulting in the improvement of the power conversion efficiency more than double. The material and device characterizations and numerical modeling are performed to propose a mechanism, also suggesting that the power conversion efficiency higher than 20%, which is an important target milestone in emerging solar cell technologies, can be achieved. This work presents the first effective passivation of the bulk defects in GaAs at the device level and can also offer a solution for other photonic and electronic devices using non-single-crystalline GaAs films for flexible electronics.

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Research Organization:: Univ. of Houston, TX (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)

Grant/Contract Number:: EE0006711

OSTI ID:: 1977664

Journal Information:: Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, Journal Name: Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells Journal Issue: C Vol. 243; ISSN 0927-0248

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
Energy & Fuels
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Low-angle grain boundaries
Materials Science
Passivation
Physics
Single-crystal-like GaAs
TOP:S treatment

Title: Significant improvement of conversion efficiency by passivation of low-angle grain boundaries in flexible low-cost single-crystal-like GaAs thin-film solar cells directly deposited on metal tape

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