Radiative recombination in strain-balanced quantum well solar cells

Author

Bessière, A. ; Connolly, J.P. ; Barnham, K.W.J. ; Ballard, I.M. ; Johnson, D.C. ; Mazzer, M. ; Hill, G. ; Roberts, J.S.

Author_Institution

Blackett Lab., Imperial Coll., London, UK

fYear

2005

fDate

3-7 Jan. 2005

Firstpage

679

Lastpage

682

Abstract

The radiative behavior of GaAsP/GaAs/InGaAs strain-balanced quantum well solar cells (SB-QWSC) with 1, 5 and 10 wells was studied. Quantum efficiencies were measured and fitted by the model SOL. Electroluminescence (EL) spectra were predicted according to a generalized detailed balance treatment assuming a quasi-Fermi level separation (QFLS) equal to the applied bias. By comparison to experimental EL spectra, a reduced QFLS was found in all three samples confirming results obtained in strained single and double quantum wells. Photoluminescence (PL) measurements conducted on the single well SB-QWSC showed that the QFLS reduction also occurred in the light as for the strained single well sample.

Keywords

Fermi level; III-V semiconductors; electroluminescence; electron-hole recombination; gallium arsenide; gallium compounds; indium compounds; photoluminescence; quantum well devices; semiconductor quantum wells; solar cells; GaAsP-GaAs-InGaAs; SOL model; electroluminescence spectra; photoluminescence; quantum efficiency; quasiFermi level separation; radiative recombination; strain-balanced quantum well solar cells; strained double quantum wells; strained single well; Charge measurement; Current measurement; Dark current; Electroluminescence; Epitaxial growth; Gallium arsenide; Lattices; Photoluminescence; Photovoltaic cells; Radiative recombination;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 2005. Conference Record of the Thirty-first IEEE

ISSN

0160-8371

Print_ISBN

0-7803-8707-4

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PVSC.2005.1488222

Filename

1488222