Lattice matched In/sub 0.52/Al/sub 0.48/As window layers for InP solar cells

Author

Jain, R.K. ; Landis, G.A. ; Flood, D.J.

Author_Institution

NASA Lewis Res. Center, Cleveland, OH, USA

fYear

1992

fDate

21-24 April 1992

Firstpage

190

Lastpage

193

Abstract

The authors investigate the effect of a wide-bandgap lattice-matched In/sub 0.52/Al/sub 0.48/As window layer on InP solar cells. using the numerical code PC-1D. It was found that the use of InAlAs as a window layer significantly enhances the p/sup +/n InP cell efficiency, while no appreciable improvement is seen for n/sup +/p cells. Cell efficiencies as high as 23% could be achieved with a 10 nm thick window layer. The performance enhancement in p/sup +/n cells is due to the energy discontinuity at the heterojunction. The InAlAs window layer acts as a minority carrier mirror and confines the minority carriers in the cell emitter region.<>

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; aluminium compounds; indium compounds; minority carriers; optical films; optical windows; solar cells; 10 nm; 23 percent; In/sub 0.52/Al/sub 0.48/As; InP solar cells; cell emitter region; energy discontinuity; minority carrier mirror; n/sup +/p cells; numerical code PC-1D; p/sup +/n InP cell efficiency; performance enhancement; wide-bandgap lattice-matched In/sub 0.52/Al/sub 0.48/As window layer; Carrier confinement; Doping; Gallium arsenide; Indium compounds; Indium phosphide; Lattices; Mirrors; Photovoltaic cells; Shadow mapping; Silicon;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Indium Phosphide and Related Materials, 1992., Fourth International Conference on

Conference_Location

Newport, RI, USA

Print_ISBN

0-7803-0522-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICIPRM.1992.235645

Filename

235645