GaSb-, InGaAsSb-, InGaSb-, InAsSbP- and Ge-TPV cells with diffused emitters

Author

Sulima, Oleg V. ; Bett, Andreas W. ; Dutta, Padha S. ; Mauk, Michael G. ; Mueller, Robert L.

Author_Institution

AstroPower Inc., Newark, DE, USA

fYear

2002

fDate

19-24 May 2002

Firstpage

892

Lastpage

895

Abstract

GaSb thermophotovoltaic (TPV) cells are believed to be the most suitable choice for modem TPV generators, both in terms of efficiency and simplicity of the diffusion technology used. However, TPV cells with bandgaps (E_g) lower than GaSb are expected to be advantageous for low-temperature (<1000°C) non-wavelength-selective TPV radiators because they provide more effective absorption of the blackbody infrared radiation. In this work, together with GaSb (E_g = 0.72 eV), semiconductors with a lower E_g - Ge (E_g = 0.66 eV), InGaSb (E_g = 0.60 eV), InGaAsSb (E_g = 0.55 eV) and InAsSbP (E_g = 0.39 eV) - were studied for TPV cells. InGaAsSb cells seem to be the most promising candidate to replace GaSb cells in the low-temperature TPV generators.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; elemental semiconductors; energy gap; gallium arsenide; gallium compounds; germanium; indium compounds; solar cells; thermophotovoltaic cells; 0.39 eV; 0.55 eV; 0.60 eV; 0.66 eV; 0.72 eV; 1000 degC; GaSb; GaSb thermophotovoltaic cells; Ge; InAsSbP; InGaAsSb; InGaSb; TPV generators; bandgaps; blackbody infrared radiation; diffused emitters; effective absorption; efficiency; simplicity; Boats; Crystallization; Epitaxial growth; Epitaxial layers; Fabrication; Radiative recombination; Space technology; Substrates; Voltage; Zinc;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 2002. Conference Record of the Twenty-Ninth IEEE

ISSN

1060-8371

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7471-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PVSC.2002.1190723

Filename

1190723