Ultra-thin film nanostructured gallium arsenide solar cells

Yangsen Kang; Yusi Chen; Yijie Huo; Li Zhao; Jieyang Jia; Huiyang Deng; James S. Harris

doi:10.1117/12.2071280

13 November 2014 Ultra-thin film nanostructured gallium arsenide solar cells

Yangsen Kang, Yusi Chen, Yijie Huo, Li Zhao, Jieyang Jia, Huiyang Deng, James S. Harris

Proceedings Volume 9277, Nanophotonics and Micro/Nano Optics II; 927718 (2014) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2071280
Event: SPIE/COS Photonics Asia, 2014, Beijing, China

Abstract

State-of-the-art III-V cells have reached the highest energy conversion efficiency among all types of solar cells. However, these cells are not applicable to widespread terrestrial solar energy system yet due to the high cost of epitaxial growth. Ultra-thin film absorbers with advanced light management is one of the most promising solutions to drive down the cost. In this paper, we present an ultra-thin film nano-window gallium arsenide (GaAs) solar cell design. This ultrathin cell consists of a nano-structured Al_0.8Ga_0.2As window layer on the front side to reduce the reflection and to trap the light, and a metal reflector on the back side to further increase the light path. The 300 nm thick GaAs cell with Al_0.8Ga_0.2As nano-window shows a broad band absorption enhancement from visible to near infrared (NIR), achieving a spectrally averaged absorption of 94% under normal incidence. In addition, this cell shows excellent angular absorption properties, achieving over 85% spectral averaged absorption at up to 60 degree off normal incidence. Meanwhile, this structure with planar junction and nano-window has solved the issue of low fill factor and low open-circuit voltage in nano-structured GaAs solar cell. A nano-window cell with a 3 μm thick GaAs junction demonstrated an open circuit voltage of 0.9V.

Citation Download Citation

Yangsen Kang, Yusi Chen, Yijie Huo, Li Zhao, Jieyang Jia, Huiyang Deng, and James S. Harris "Ultra-thin film nanostructured gallium arsenide solar cells", Proc. SPIE 9277, Nanophotonics and Micro/Nano Optics II, 927718 (13 November 2014); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2071280

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