In this paper a method is presented to accurately and quickly interpolate a dataset of the complex refractive index of arbitrary compound semiconductors. The method is based on a parameter morphing ...algorithm which maps critical points of two endpoint materials with known optical parameter sets onto each other. Every desired intermediate material composition can be interpolated if the composition dependence of the band gap is known for the given material system. The accuracy and stability of the proposed procedure is validated experimentally using spectral ellipsometry and reflection measurements. Test samples of two III-V semiconductor material systems, AlGaAs and GaInAsP, with various compositions were grown using metalorganic vapour phase epitaxy and the morphed parameter sets are compared to corresponding measurement results. Modelling the absorption of a solar cell device and comparing it to the external quantum efficiency is presented as an application example of this method. The interpolation method is demonstrated to be a powerful tool for optical and electro-optical modelling of semiconductor structures if parameters of the complex refractive index are not available for the exact material composition.
Four-Junction Wafer-Bonded Concentrator Solar Cells Dimroth, Frank; Tibbits, Thomas N. D.; Niemeyer, Markus ...
IEEE journal of photovoltaics,
2016-Jan., 2016-1-00, 20160101, Volume:
6, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
The highest solar cell conversion efficiencies are achieved with four-junction devices under concentrated sunlight illumination. Different cell architectures are under development, all targeting an ...ideal bandgap combination close to 1.9, 1.4, 1.0, and 0.7 eV. Wafer bonding is used in this work to combine materials with a significant lattice mismatch. Three cell architectures are presented using the same two top junctions of GaInP/GaAs but different infrared absorbers based on Germanium, GaSb, or GaInAs on InP. The modeled efficiency potential at 500 suns is in the range of 49-54% for all three devices, but the highest efficiency is expected for the InP-based cell. An efficiency of 46% at 508 suns was already measured by AIST in Japan for a GaInP/GaAs//GaInAsP/GaInAs solar cell and represents the highest independently confirmed efficiency today. Solar cells on Ge and GaSb are in the development phase at Fraunhofer ISE, and the first demonstration of functional devices is presented in this paper.
Photovoltaics based on nanowire arrays could reduce cost and materials consumption compared with planar devices but have exhibited low efficiency of light absorption and carrier collection. We ...fabricated a variety of millimeter-sized arrays of p-type/intrinsic/n-type (p-i-n) doped InP nanowires and found that the nanowire diameter and the length of the top n-segment were critical for cell performance. Efficiencies up to 13.8% (comparable to the record planar InP cell) were achieved by using resonant light trapping in 180-nanometer-diameter nanowires that only covered 12% of the surface. The share of sunlight converted into photocurrent (71%) was six times the limit in a simple ray optics description. Furthermore, the highest open-circuit voltage of 0.906 volt exceeds that of its planar counterpart, despite about 30 times higher surface-to-volume ratio of the nanowire cell.
Summary form only given. The highest solar cell conversion efficiencies are achieved with Four-junction devices under concentrated sunlight illumination. Different cell architectures are under ...development, all targeting an ideal bandgap combination close to 1.9 eV, 1.4 eV, 1.0 eV and 0.7 eV. Wafer bonding is used in this work to combine materials with a significant lattice-mismatch. Three cell architectures are presented using the same two top junctions of GaInP/GaAs but different infrared absorbers based on Germanium, GaSb or GaInAs on InP. The modelled efficiency potential at 500 suns is in the range of 49-54 % for all three devices but the highest efficiency is expected for the InP-based cell. An efficiency of 46 % at 508-suns was already measured by AIST in Japan for a GaInP/GaAs//GaInAsP/GaInAs solar cell and represents the highest independently confirmed efficiency today. Solar cells on Ge and GaSb are in the development phase at Fraunhofer ISE and first demonstration of functional devices is presented in this paper.
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