A V-grooved GaAs solar cell

Author

Bailey, S.G. ; Fatemi, N. ; Landis, G.A. ; Wilt, D.M. ; Thomas, R.D. ; Arrison, A.

Author_Institution

NASA Lewis Res. Center, Cleveland, OH, USA

fYear

1988

fDate

1988

Firstpage

625

Abstract

A GaAs homojunction cell was fabricated by etching a V-groove pattern into an n-epilayer (2.1*10¹⁷ cm^-3) grown by MOCVD (metal-organic chemical vapor deposition) on an n⁺ substrate (2.8*10¹⁸ cm^-3) and then depositing on MOCVD p-epilayer (4.2*10¹⁸ cm^-3). Reflectivity measurements on cells with and without an antireflective coating confirm the expected decrease in reflectance of the microgrooved cell compared to the planar structure. Examination of the dark current-voltage characteristics of the test diodes has revealed that a reverse saturation current density of about 1*10^-18 A/cm² (total area) is readily achievable with these solar cells, assuming a diode ideality factor of one. The short-circuit current of the V-grooved solar cell was 13% higher than that of the planar control.

Keywords

CVD coatings; III-V semiconductors; gallium arsenide; reflectivity; solar cells; GaAs solar cell; V-groove pattern; antireflective coating; dark current-voltage characteristics; diodes; etching; homojunction cell; metal-organic chemical vapor deposition; n-epilayer; n⁺ substrate; p-epilayer; reflectance; reflectivity measurements; reverse saturation current density; semiconductor; short-circuit current; Chemical vapor deposition; Coatings; Current-voltage characteristics; Diodes; Etching; Gallium arsenide; MOCVD; Photovoltaic cells; Reflectivity; Testing;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 1988., Conference Record of the Twentieth IEEE

Conference_Location

Las Vegas, NV, USA

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PVSC.1988.105778

Filename

105778