Strain balanced quantum posts for intermediate band solar cells

Author

Alonso-Álvarez, D. ; Alén, B. ; Ripalda, J.M. ; Taboada, A.G. ; Llorens, J.M. ; González, Y. ; González, L. ; Briones, F. ; Antolin, E. ; Ramiro, I. ; Martí, A. ; Luque, A. ; Roldán, M.A. ; Hernandez-Saz, J. ; Herrera, M. ; Molina, S.I.

Author_Institution

CNM (CSIC), Inst. de Microelectron. de Madrid, Tres Cantos, Spain

fYear

2010

fDate

20-25 June 2010

Abstract

In this work we present strain balanced InAs quantum post of exceptional length in the context of photovoltaics. We discuss the general properties of these nanostructures and their impact in the practical implementation of an intermediate band solar cell. We have studied the photocurrent generated by strain balanced quantum posts embedded in a GaAs single crystal, and compared our results with quantum dot based devices. The incorporation of phosphorous in the matrix to partially compensate the accumulated stress enables a significant increase of the quantum post maximum length. The relative importance of tunneling and thermal escape processes is found to depend strongly on the geometry of the nanostructures.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; gallium arsenide; indium compounds; nanostructured materials; phosphorus; photoconductivity; photoemission; semiconductor heterojunctions; solar cells; GaAs; InAs; P; intermediate band solar cells; nanostructures; phosphorous incorporation; photocurrent generation; photovoltaics; single crystal; strain balanced quantum posts; thermal escape; Absorption; Gallium arsenide; Nanostructures; Photoconductivity; Photovoltaic cells; Quantum dots; Strain;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC), 2010 35th IEEE

Conference_Location

Honolulu, HI

ISSN

0160-8371

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-5890-5

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PVSC.2010.5614557

Filename

5614557