Measurements and Modeling of III-V Solar Cells at High Temperatures up to 400 °C
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); University of California, Santa Barbara, CA (United States)
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL (United States); Yale University, New Haven, CT (United States)
Here in this paper, we study the performance of 2.0 eV Al0.12Ga0.39In0.49P and 1.4 eV GaAs solar cells over a temperature range of 25-400 degrees °C. The temperature-dependent J01 and J02 dark currents are extracted by fitting current-voltage measurements to a two-diode model. We find that the intrinsic carrier concentration ni dominates the temperature dependence of the dark currents, open-circuit voltage, and cell efficiency. To study the impact of temperature on the photocurrent and bandgap of the solar cells, we measure the quantum efficiency and illuminated current-voltage characteristics of the devices up to 400 °C. As the temperature is increased, we observe no degradation to the internal quantum efficiency and a decrease in the bandgap. These two factors drive an increase in the short-circuit current density at high temperatures. Finally, we measure the devices at concentrations ranging from ~30 to 1500 suns and observe n = 1 recombination characteristics across the entire temperature range. These findings should be a valuable guide to the design of any system that requires high-temperature solar cell operation.
- 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:
- 1329367
- Report Number(s):
- NREL/JA-5J00-66661
- Journal Information:
- IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics, Vol. 6, Issue 5; ISSN 2156-3381
- Publisher:
- IEEECopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Web of Science
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