Metamorphic GaAsP Tunnel Junctions for High-Efficiency III–V/IV Multijunction Solar Cell Technology

Author

Chmielewski, Daniel J. ; Grassman, Tyler J. ; Carlin, Andrew M. ; Carlin, John A. ; Speelman, Austin J. ; Ringel, Steven A.

Author_Institution

Ohio State Univ., Columbus, OH, USA

Volume

4

Issue

5

fYear

2014

fDate

Sept. 2014

Firstpage

1301

Lastpage

1305

Abstract

Metamorphic GaAs_0.9P_0.1 tunnel diodes, designed for application to heteroepitaxial GaInP/GaAsP/Si multijunction solar cells, were grown on compositionally graded GaAs_yP_1-y/GaAs buffers by molecular beam epitaxy. Optimal growth conditions for high impurity doping were determined and tested using fabricated tunnel diode structures. Peak current densities of 103.9 A · cm^-2 and resistance-area products of 4.5 × 10^-4 Ω · cm² were obtained. Strong agreement between simulated and fabricated devices indicates excellent device quality with respect to optimized growth conditions and near-nominal operation. These results suggest that the optimized structures are promising for use within III-V/Si multijunction solar cells operating under high concentration.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; buffer layers; current density; elemental semiconductors; gallium arsenide; gallium compounds; indium compounds; molecular beam epitaxial growth; semiconductor device models; semiconductor device testing; semiconductor doping; semiconductor epitaxial layers; semiconductor heterojunctions; silicon; solar cells; tunnel diodes; GaAs_yP_1-y-GaAs; GaInP-GaAsP-Si; compositionally graded buffers; device quality; heteroepitaxial multijunction solar cells; high-efficiency III-V/IV multijunction solar cell technology; impurity doping; metamorphic tunnel diodes; metamorphic tunnel junctions; molecular beam epitaxy; optimal growth conditions; peak current densities; resistance-area products; Doping; Gallium arsenide; Molecular beam epitaxial growth; Performance evaluation; Photovoltaic cells; Silicon; Temperature measurement; Charge carrier density; III–V semiconductor materials; III??V semiconductor materials; doping; epitaxial layers; photovoltaic cells; simulation; solar energy; tunneling;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photovoltaics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

2156-3381

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JPHOTOV.2014.2328592

Filename

6844839