Experimental analysis of GaAs-InGaAs MQW solar cells

Author

Ragay, F.W. ; Wolter, J.H. ; Marti, A. ; Araújo, G.L.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Appl. Phys., Eindhoven Univ. of Technol., Netherlands

Volume

2

fYear

1994

fDate

5-9 Dec 1994

Firstpage

1754

Abstract

Incorporation of multiple quantum wells (MQW) in the i-region of p-i-n solar cells has been regarded as a promising alternative to design high efficiency III-V solar cells. Although recently it has been shown that the limiting efficiency of MQW solar cells cannot exceed the limiting efficiency of single bandgap solar cells, the potential of MQW solar cells to reach this limit, should be explored. In this sense, the authors present an experimental analysis of the efficiency of GaAs-InGaAs p-i-n MQW solar cells, with fifteen 80 Å In_0.2Ga_0.8As quantum wells incorporated in the i-region of p-i-n GaAs cells. They show the effect of the GaAs barrier thickness on the dark current, I-V curve under illumination, spectral response and the radiative losses. Structural analyses have been performed by X-ray diffraction

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; X-ray diffraction; gallium arsenide; indium compounds; p-n heterojunctions; semiconductor device testing; semiconductor quantum wells; solar cells; 80 angstrom; GaAs-InGaAs; In_0.2Ga_0.8As; X-ray diffraction; bandgap; barrier thickness; dark current; design; efficiency; i-region; illuminated I-V curve; multiple quantum wells; p-i-n solar cells; radiative losses; spectral response; structural analysis; Dark current; Gallium arsenide; III-V semiconductor materials; Lighting; PIN photodiodes; Performance analysis; Photonic band gap; Photovoltaic cells; Quantum well devices; X-ray diffraction;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Energy Conversion, 1994., Conference Record of the Twenty Fourth. IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference - 1994, 1994 IEEE First World Conference on

Conference_Location

Waikoloa, HI

Print_ISBN

0-7803-1460-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/WCPEC.1994.520558

Filename

520558