Title :
Influence of bandgap narrowing effects in p+-GaAs on solar cell performance
Author :
Klausmeier-Brown, M.E. ; DeMoulin, P.D. ; Chuang, H.L. ; Lundstrom, M.S. ; Melloch, M.R. ; Tobin, S.P.
Author_Institution :
Sch. of Electr. Eng., Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN, USA
Abstract :
The authors review electrical measurements of bandgap-narrowing effects in p+-GaAs and assess their influence on solar cell performance. It is found that these effects degrade solar cell performance by increasing the dark current associated with electron injection in p+-n cells and degrading the performance of p-p+ back-surface fields. The authors describe an experiment which directly measures the electron recombination velocity, S, for a p-p+ back-surface field, and they show that the high value of S can be explained by bandgap narrowing. Computer simulation is used to assess the influence of bandgap narrowing on realistic solar cells.
Keywords :
III-V semiconductors; digital simulation; electron-hole recombination; engineering computing; gallium arsenide; solar cells; GaAs solar cells; bandgap narrowing effects; dark current; digital simulation; electron recombination velocity; p-p+ back-surface fields; semiconductor; Computer simulation; Dark current; Degradation; Electric variables measurement; Electron emission; Electrons; Etching; Gallium arsenide; Photonic band gap; Photovoltaic cells; Silicon; Spontaneous emission; Velocity measurement;
Conference_Titel :
Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 1988., Conference Record of the Twentieth IEEE
Conference_Location :
Las Vegas, NV, USA
DOI :
10.1109/PVSC.1988.105752
