High-performance In/sub 0.53/Ga/sub 0.47/As thermophotovoltaic devices grown by solid source molecular beam epitaxy

In/sub 0.53/Ga/sub 0.47/As-based monolithic interconnected modules (MIMs) of thermophotovoltaic (TPV) devices lattice-matched to InP were grown by solid source molecular beam epitaxy. The MIM device consisted of ten individual In/sub 0.53/Ga/sub 0.47/As TPV cells connected in series on an InP substrate. An open-circuit voltage (V/sub oc/) of 4.82 V, short-circuit current density (J/sub sc/) of 1.03 A/cm/sup 2/ and fill factor of /spl sim/73% were achieved for a ten-junction MIM with a bandgap of 0.74 eV under high intensity white light illumination. Device performance uniformity was better than 1.5% across a full 2-in InP wafer. The V/sub oc/ and J/sub sc/ values are the highest yet reported for 0.74-eV band gap n-p-n MIM devices.