Dilute nitride multi-quantum well multi-junction design: a route to ultra-efficient photovoltaic devices

Gopi Krishna Vijaya; Andenet Alemu; Alex Freundlich

doi:10.1117/12.875239

21 February 2011 Dilute nitride multi-quantum well multi-junction design: a route to ultra-efficient photovoltaic devices

Gopi Krishna Vijaya, Andenet Alemu, Alex Freundlich

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 7933, Physics and Simulation of Optoelectronic Devices XIX; 79330G (2011) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.875239
Event: SPIE OPTO, 2011, San Francisco, California, United States

Abstract

The current high-efficiency triple junction (Al)InGaP (1.9eV)/GaAs(1.42eV)/ Ge(0.66eV) design for a solar cell can be improved upon by the use dilute nitrides to include a sub-cell in the 1eV range. Addition of a small percentage of nitrogen to III-V semiconductor alloys (such as GaAsN) enables us to achieve the required bandgap, however these bulk dilute nitride structures suffer from a reduced minority carrier lifetime, decreasing the overall current output. The route suggested herein is to include dilute nitride multi-quantum wells (with thicknesses much lesser than the minority carrier diffusion length) within the intrinsic region of a GaAs subcell. Modeling has been done for this structure to obtain the confined energies of the electrons and holes, as well as the absorption coefficient and thereby the spectral response of the 4-junction cell. The results show that it is possible to achieve with the appropriate current matching, a conversion efficiency of ~40% under AM0 (1 sun) with up to ~18 mAcm^-2 short circuit current.

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Gopi Krishna Vijaya, Andenet Alemu, and Alex Freundlich "Dilute nitride multi-quantum well multi-junction design: a route to ultra-efficient photovoltaic devices", Proc. SPIE 7933, Physics and Simulation of Optoelectronic Devices XIX, 79330G (21 February 2011); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.875239

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