Efficiency Enhancement of InGaN-Based Multiple Quantum Well Solar Cells Employing Antireflective ZnO Nanorod Arrays

Author

Lin, G.J. ; Lai, K.Y. ; Lin, C.A. ; Lai, Y. -L ; He, J.H.

Author_Institution

Inst. of Photonics & Optoelectron., Nat. Taiwan Univ., Taipei, Taiwan

Volume

32

Issue

8

fYear

2011

Firstpage

1104

Lastpage

1106

Abstract

Antireflective ZnO nanorod arrays (NRAs) by a scalable chemical method have been applied for InGaN-based multiple quantum well solar cells. The length of the NRAs plays an important role in photovoltaic characteristics. It was found that the 1.1-μm-long NRA results in enhanced conversion efficiency due to the suppressed surface reflection. However, the 2.5- μm-long NRAs, although exhibiting the lowest reflection, lead to slightly deteriorated performances, possibly due to the increased absorption of the NRAs. The results indicate that the absorption of lengthened NRAs should be considered when optimizing their antireflection performances. We demonstrated a viable efficiency-boosting way for photovoltaics.

Keywords

absorption; gallium compounds; indium compounds; nanorods; nitrogen compounds; quantum well devices; solar cells; zinc compounds; InGaN; ZnO; absorption; antireflection performance; chemical method; efficiency enhancement; enhanced conversion efficiency; multiple quantum well solar cell; nanorod array; photovoltaic characteristic; size 1.1 mum; size 2.5 mum; suppressed surface reflection; Absorption; Helium; Optical surface waves; Photovoltaic cells; Quantum well devices; Surface waves; Zinc oxide; Antireflection (AR); InGaN; ZnO nanorod arrays (NRAs); conversion efficiency; multiple quantum well (MQW); solar cells;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Device Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0741-3106

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LED.2011.2158061

Filename

5930323