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Title: 15.3%-Efficient GaAsP Solar Cells on GaP/Si Templates

Abstract

As single-junction Si solar cells approach their practical efficiency limits, a new pathway is necessary to increase efficiency in order to realize more cost-effective photovoltaics. Integrating III-V cells onto Si in a multijunction architecture is a promising approach that can achieve high efficiency while leveraging the infrastructure already in place for Si and III-V technology. In this Letter, we demonstrate a record 15.3%-efficient 1.7 eV GaAsP top cell on GaP/Si, enabled by recent advances in material quality in conjunction with an improved device design and a high-performance antireflection coating. Furthermore, we present a separate Si bottom cell with a 1.7 eV GaAsP optical filter to absorb most of the visible light with an efficiency of 6.3%, showing the feasibility of monolithic III-V/Si tandems with >20% efficiency. Through spectral efficiency analysis, we also compare our results to previously published GaAsP and Si devices, projecting tandem GaAsP/Si efficiencies of up to 25.6% based on current state-of-the-art individual subcells. With the aid of modeling, we further illustrate a realistic path toward 30% GaAsP/Si tandems for high-efficiency, monolithically integrated photovoltaics.

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [7];  [6];  [2]
+ Show Author Affiliations
  1. Yale Univ., New Haven, CT (United States). Dept. of Electrical Engineering; National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
  2. Univ. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL (United States). Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
  3. Yale Univ., New Haven, CT (United States). Dept. of Electrical Engineering
  4. National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
  5. King Juan Carlos Univ., Madrid (Spain). Dept. of Electrical Technology
  6. Arizona State Univ., Tempe, AZ (United States). School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering
  7. School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, United States
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE); National Science Foundation (NSF)
OSTI Identifier:
1394745
Report Number(s):
NREL/JA-5J00-70182
Journal ID: ISSN 2380-8195
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC36-08GO28308; DMR-1119826
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
ACS Energy Letters
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 2; Journal Issue: 8; Journal ID: ISSN 2380-8195
Publisher:
American Chemical Society (ACS)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
14 SOLAR ENERGY; solar cells; efficiency; multijunction

Citation Formats

Vaisman, Michelle, Fan, Shizhao, Nay Yaung, Kevin, Perl, Emmett, Martín-Martín, Diego, Yu, Zhengshan J., Leilaeioun, Mehdi, Holman, Zachary C., and Lee, Minjoo L. 15.3%-Efficient GaAsP Solar Cells on GaP/Si Templates. United States: N. p., 2017. Web. doi:10.1021/acsenergylett.7b00538.
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Vaisman, Michelle, Fan, Shizhao, Nay Yaung, Kevin, Perl, Emmett, Martín-Martín, Diego, Yu, Zhengshan J., Leilaeioun, Mehdi, Holman, Zachary C., & Lee, Minjoo L. 15.3%-Efficient GaAsP Solar Cells on GaP/Si Templates. United States. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsenergylett.7b00538
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Vaisman, Michelle, Fan, Shizhao, Nay Yaung, Kevin, Perl, Emmett, Martín-Martín, Diego, Yu, Zhengshan J., Leilaeioun, Mehdi, Holman, Zachary C., and Lee, Minjoo L. Wed . "15.3%-Efficient GaAsP Solar Cells on GaP/Si Templates". United States. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsenergylett.7b00538. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1394745.
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@article{osti_1394745,
title = {15.3%-Efficient GaAsP Solar Cells on GaP/Si Templates},
author = {Vaisman, Michelle and Fan, Shizhao and Nay Yaung, Kevin and Perl, Emmett and Martín-Martín, Diego and Yu, Zhengshan J. and Leilaeioun, Mehdi and Holman, Zachary C. and Lee, Minjoo L.},
abstractNote = {As single-junction Si solar cells approach their practical efficiency limits, a new pathway is necessary to increase efficiency in order to realize more cost-effective photovoltaics. Integrating III-V cells onto Si in a multijunction architecture is a promising approach that can achieve high efficiency while leveraging the infrastructure already in place for Si and III-V technology. In this Letter, we demonstrate a record 15.3%-efficient 1.7 eV GaAsP top cell on GaP/Si, enabled by recent advances in material quality in conjunction with an improved device design and a high-performance antireflection coating. Furthermore, we present a separate Si bottom cell with a 1.7 eV GaAsP optical filter to absorb most of the visible light with an efficiency of 6.3%, showing the feasibility of monolithic III-V/Si tandems with >20% efficiency. Through spectral efficiency analysis, we also compare our results to previously published GaAsP and Si devices, projecting tandem GaAsP/Si efficiencies of up to 25.6% based on current state-of-the-art individual subcells. With the aid of modeling, we further illustrate a realistic path toward 30% GaAsP/Si tandems for high-efficiency, monolithically integrated photovoltaics.},
doi = {10.1021/acsenergylett.7b00538},
journal = {ACS Energy Letters},
number = 8,
volume = 2,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Jul 26 00:00:00 EDT 2017},
month = {Wed Jul 26 00:00:00 EDT 2017}
}
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https://doi.org/10.1021/acsenergylett.7b00538
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