Effects of stress in III-V solar cells

Author

Chu, C.L. ; Chen, G.I.C.

Author_Institution

TECSTAR/ASD, CA, USA

fYear

1997

fDate

29 Sep-3 Oct 1997

Firstpage

879

Lastpage

881

Abstract

Planar, thermal stresses were applied to GaInP/GaAs/Ge cascade structures by bonding cells to Si or Al plates. After thorough evaluation, it was found that electrical properties of the solar cell were not affected by the stress. Using other characterization methods, the bandgap of the stressed cell was widened, and PL mapping showed improvement in the electronic quality of the sample. Triple-axis X-ray measurement did not resolve the relative variation in d-spacing of the stressed epi-layers, but lateral variation of the crystal was observed. These laboratory observations were in agreement with numerical simulation

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; X-ray diffraction; elemental semiconductors; energy gap; gallium arsenide; gallium compounds; germanium; indium compounds; photoluminescence; solar cells; thermal stresses; Al; Al plates; GaInP-GaAs-Ge; GaInP/GaAs/Ge cascade structures; I-V testing; III-V solar cells; NASTRAN simulation; PL mapping; Si; Si plates; X-ray diffraction; bandgap; crystal lateral variation; d-spacing; electrical properties; electronic quality; planar stresses; stressed cell; stressed epi-layers; thermal stresses; triple-axis X-ray measurement; Gallium arsenide; III-V semiconductor materials; Numerical simulation; Photoluminescence; Photonic band gap; Photovoltaic cells; Residual stresses; Substrates; Temperature; Thermal stresses;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 1997., Conference Record of the Twenty-Sixth IEEE

Conference_Location

Anaheim, CA

ISSN

0160-8371

Print_ISBN

0-7803-3767-0

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PVSC.1997.654227

Filename

654227