Simulation of Quantum Dot Solar Cells Including Carrier Intersubband Dynamics and Transport

Author

Gioannini, Mariangela ; Cedola, A.P. ; Di Santo, Natale ; Bertazzi, Francesco ; Cappelluti, F.

Author_Institution

Dipt. di Elettron. e Telecomun., Politec. di Torino, Turin, Italy

Volume

3

Issue

4

fYear

2013

fDate

Oct. 2013

Firstpage

1271

Lastpage

1278

Abstract

This paper presents a device-level model of quantum dot (QD) solar cells, coupling the classical drift-diffusion equations for transport of bulk carriers with a set of rate equations describing the QD carrier dynamics. The model is applied to carry out a detailed study of the impact of thermal-assisted processes on the electrical performance of InAs/GaAs QD solar cells (QDSCs), by exploiting experimentally determined parameters for QD photogeneration and carrier kinetics. Special emphasis is given on the analysis of the open circuit voltage degradation, as well as its dependence on QD size and carrier lifetime. The modeling approach is validated by comparing simulated trends against experimental data in the literature.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; carrier lifetime; diffusion; gallium arsenide; indium compounds; semiconductor device models; semiconductor quantum dots; solar cells; InAs-GaAs; InAs-GaAs quantum dot solar cells; bulk carrier transport; carrier intersubband dynamics; carrier kinetics; carrier lifetime; device-level model; drift-diffusion equations; electrical performance; modeling approach; open circuit voltage degradation analysis; quantum dot carrier dynamics; quantum dot photogeneration; quantum dot size; quantum dot solar cell simulation; rate equations; thermal-assisted processes; Absorption; Charge carrier processes; Gallium arsenide; Indium compounds; Nanostructured materials; Numerical simulation; Photovoltaic cells; Quantum dots; Carrier dynamics; InAs/GaAs; device modeling; nanostructured solar cells; numerical simulation; quantum dots (QDs);

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photovoltaics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

2156-3381

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JPHOTOV.2013.2270345

Filename

6556978