AlGaAs top solar cell for mechanical attachment in a multi-junction tandem concentrator solar cell stack

Author

DiNetta, L. ; Negley, G. ; Hannon, M. ; Cummings, J. ; McNeely, J. ; Barnett, Allen

Author_Institution

AstroPower Inc., Newark, DE, USA

fYear

1990

fDate

21-25 May 1990

Firstpage

58

Abstract

Free-standing, transparent, tunables bandgap Al_xGa_1-xAs top solar cells have been fabricated for mechanical attachment in a four-terminal tandem stack solar cell. The device has 1.8 eV top solar cells with efficiencies of 18% (100X, AM0), which would yield stack efficiencies of 31% (100X, AM0) with a silicon bottom cell. When fully developed, the Al_xGa_1-xAs/Si mechanically stacked two-junction solar cell concentrator system can provide efficiencies of 36% (AM0, 100X). Liquid-phase epitaxy (LPE) growth techniques have been used. This is the first demonstration of a free-standing wide-bandgap top cell technology which can be readily developed for commercial availability based on the Al-Ga-As mixed-crystal system

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; aluminium compounds; gallium arsenide; liquid phase epitaxial growth; semiconductor growth; solar cells; solar energy concentrators; 1.8 eV; 18 percent; 31 percent; 36 percent; Al_xGa_1-xAs; AlGaAs-Si; LPE; bottom cell; growth; liquid phase epitaxy; multijunction; semiconductors; tandem concentrator solar cell; top solar cell; tunables bandgap; Assembly; Gallium arsenide; Indium phosphide; Performance loss; Photonic band gap; Photovoltaic cells; Predictive models; Silicon; Solar power generation; Substrates;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 1990., Conference Record of the Twenty First IEEE

Conference_Location

Kissimmee, FL

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PVSC.1990.111591

Filename

111591