Recombination lifetime and performance of III-V compound photovoltaic devices

High-efficiency photovoltaic (PV) devices are based both on the III-V compound and silicon semiconductor technologies. The III-V semiconductors are more efficient than silicon for concentrator technology when the incident flux exceeds about 200 Suns. These devices are of both single- and multijunction configurations, the latter being primarily feasible by the epitaxial growth of combinations of binary and ternary compounds. Work has focused on semiconducting materials in the GaAs and Al_xGa_1-xAs series, although other III-Vs have recently been developed for PV applications. The role of the minority-carrier lifetime and mobility in high-efficiency devices is discussed. The state-of-the-art of current popular materials is reviewed