Effect of Sb on the Properties of GaInP Top Cells

It is well known that the efficiency of GaInP/GaAs tandem solar cells is limited by the band gap of the GaInP top cell, which, in turn, is determined by the degree of compositional ordering in the GaInP base layer. Attempts to raise the band gap by the addition of Al to the top cell have met with limited success due to the strong affinity between Al and oxygen. Here we investigate a different approach. It has been shown that the presence of antimony on the surface of GaInP during its growth suppresses the ordering process and increases the band gap. In this paper, we study the effects of Sb on the properties of GaInP top cells. We show that, in addition to raising the band gap of GaInP, it also increases the incorporation of Zn and changes the relative incorporation of Ga and In. These effects depend strongly on the substrate orientation, growth temperature and rate, and the Sb/P ratio in the gas phase. We show that the band gap of the GaInP top cell (and the Voc) can be increased without reducing the minority carrier collection efficiency. The implications of these results are presented and discussed