Effects of Substrate Orientation on the Photovoltaic Performance of InGaAs Solar Cells

Author

Tseng, Ming-Chun ; Horng, Ray-Hua ; Lin, Snin-Nan ; Wuu, Dong-Sing ; Wu, Chih-Hung ; Chao, Chih-Kang ; Yu, Hsin-Her

Author_Institution

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

Volume

57

Issue

9

fYear

2010

Firstpage

2138

Lastpage

2143

Abstract

In_0.16Ga_0.84As solar cells grown on GaAs substrates with different miscut angles via metalorganic chemical vapor deposition were utilized to study the effect of substrate orientation on solar cell efficiency. A p-n In_0.16Ga_0.84As solar cell grown on a 2°-off GaAs substrate exhibited better conversion efficiency than one grown on a 15°-off GaAs substrate. The poor performance of the 15°-off In_0.16Ga_0.84As solar cell could be attributed to the formation of high-density misfit dislocations through strain relaxation, thereby reducing the minority carrier lifetime. The conversion efficiency of a 15°-off In_0.16Ga_0.84As solar cell was improved using a p-i-n structure. Using the p-i-n structure design, a 15°-off In_0.16Ga_0.84As solar cell showed conversion efficiency close to or even better than that of a 2°-off In_0.16Ga_0.84As solar cell with the same structure.

Keywords

gallium compounds; indium compounds; solar cells; InGaAs; InGaAs solar cells; metalorganic chemical vapor deposition; photovoltaic performance; strain relaxation; substrate orientation; Capacitive sensors; Crystallization; Gallium arsenide; Indium gallium arsenide; Materials science and technology; PIN photodiodes; Photonic band gap; Photovoltaic cells; Photovoltaic systems; Solar power generation; $hbox{In}_{0.16}hbox{Ga}_{0.84}hbox{As}$ solar cells; miscut angles; p-i-n structure;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Devices, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9383

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TED.2010.2052397

Filename

5508385