Fabrication and Characterization of GaAs Solar Cells on Copper Substrates

Author

Tseng, Ming-Chun ; Horng, Ray-Hua ; Tsai, Yu-Li ; Wuu, Dong-Sing ; Yu, Hsin-Her

Author_Institution

Inst. of Electro-Opt. & Mater. Sci., Nat. Formosa Univ., Yunlin, Taiwan

Volume

30

Issue

9

fYear

2009

Firstpage

940

Lastpage

942

Abstract

This letter presents performance comparison between a GaAs/mirror/copper thin-film solar cell and a conventional GaAs solar cell with a thick GaAs substrate. The GaAs thin-film solar cell was fabricated by transferring a GaAs solar cell onto a AuGe/Au mirror-coated copper substrate. With the aid of the excellent copper conductor, the thin-film solar cell exhibits significant improvement in both open-circuit voltage and short-circuit current density. The improved current-voltage (I-V) performance of the thin-film solar cell originates from the following two factors: reduced reverse saturation current by good heat dissipation of copper and enhanced light absorption by the highly reflective AuGe/Au mirror. The role of the mirror can further be verified in the measurement of external quantum efficiency (EQE) response where the thin-film solar cell exhibits a larger EQE response in the wavelength range of 700-900 nm than the conventional GaAs solar cell with the same active absorbing thickness.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; cooling; copper; current density; gallium arsenide; light absorption; mirrors; semiconductor thin films; solar cells; thin film devices; Cu; GaAs; copper conductor; current-voltage performance; enhanced light absorption; external quantum efficiency response; heat dissipation; mirror-coated copper substrate; open-circuit voltage; reduced reverse saturation current; short-circuit current density; thin-film solar cell; wavelength 700 nm to 900 nm; Copper; GaAs solar cell; thin film;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Device Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0741-3106

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LED.2009.2026292

Filename

5184887