MBE growth of GaInAsSb p/n junction diodes for thermophotovoltaic applications
- Lockheed Martin Labs., Baltimore, MD (United States)
- Lockheed Martin, Schenectady, NY (United States)
- Lockheed Martin Astro Space, Philadelphia, PA (United States)
- ARL, Adelphi, MD (United States)
- National Semiconductor, Annapolis Junction, MD (United States)
This paper reports recent progress in the development of quaternary III-V thermophotovoltaic (TPV) devices based on MBE grown Ga{sub x}In{sub 1{minus}x}As{sub y}Sb{sub 1{minus}y}. TPV is of great interest for a variety of applications. The objective of this work is to develop a TPV cell which is tunable to the emission spectrum of a heated blackbody, at temperatures in the range of 1200--1473 K. One aspect of this tuning is to match the band gap, E{sub gap}, of the photovoltaic device to the peak output of the heat source., An advantage of the quarternary III-V semiconductor systems is that devices can be fabricated by molecular beam epitaxy on a suitable binary substrate, such as GaSb or InAs, and the band gap and lattice constant can be adjusted more or less independently, to match requirements. Quarternary cells, with band-gaps in the 0.5 to 0.72 eV range, have been fabricated and tested. For 0.54 eV devices the authors obtained V{sub oc} = 0.3 V and I{sub sc} = 1.5 amperes/cm{sup 2} under infrared illumination of a 1200 K blackbody. Under high illumination levels the V{sub oc} and I{sub sc} ranged from 0.5 V at 3 amperes/cm{sup 2} for 0.72 eV devices to 0.31 V at 1.2 amperes/cm{sup 2} for 0.5 eV devices, indicating good photovoltaic device characteristics over the range of bandgaps. The diode ideality factor for 0.54 eV devices ranged from 2.45 at low illumination indicating tunneling-dominated dark current, to 1.7 at high illumination intensity indicating recombination-generation dominated dark currents.
- Research Organization:
- Knolls Atomic Power Lab. (KAPL), Niskayuna, NY (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC12-76SN00052
- OSTI ID:
- 350923
- Report Number(s):
- KAPL-P-000228; K-96108; CONF-960834-; ON: DE99002667; TRN: AHC29921%%108
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 9. international conference on molecular beam epitaxy, Malibu, CA (United States), 5-9 Aug 1996; Other Information: PBD: Aug 1996
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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