Thin-film GaAs solar cells by epitaxial lift-off

Author

Lush, G.B. ; Patkar, M.P. ; Young, M.P. ; Melloch, M.R. ; Lundstrom, M.S. ; Vernon, S.M. ; Gagnon, E.D. ; Geoffroy, L.M. ; Sanfacon, M.M.

Author_Institution

Sch. of Electr. Eng., Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN, USA

fYear

1993

fDate

10-14 May 1993

Firstpage

1343

Lastpage

1346

Abstract

The authors have performed basic characterization studies of thin-film GaAs n/p and p/n solar cells made by epitaxial lift-off. They find that the internal quantum efficiency is enhanced by as much as 71% in these cells after lift-off due to the presence of a back reflector. An unalloyed, low series resistance back contact can be made with proper contacting techniques and using only van der Waals bonding to gold or palladium. These preliminary results show that thin-film solar cells can be processed without loss of film quality, and suggest that successful implementation of this design concept should lead to increased conversion efficiencies

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; electrical contacts; epitaxial growth; gallium arsenide; semiconductor device testing; semiconductor growth; semiconductor thin films; solar cells; van der Waals forces; Au; GaAs; Pd; back contact; back reflector; characterization; design; epitaxial lift-off; quality; series resistance; solar cells; thin-film semiconductors; van der Waals bonding; Bonding; Contact resistance; Crystallization; Gallium arsenide; Gold; Optical films; Photovoltaic cells; Radiative recombination; Substrates; Transistors;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 1993., Conference Record of the Twenty Third IEEE

Conference_Location

Louisville, KY

Print_ISBN

0-7803-1220-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PVSC.1993.346923

Filename

346923