Investigation of InGaP/Ga(In)As/Ge solar cells characteristics in the temperature range of 300 - 80 K

17th Russian Youth Conference on Physics of Semiconductors and Nanostructures, Opto- and Nanoelectronics

Kontrosh, E.V.^1 ; Malevskaya, A.V.^1 ; Lebedeva, N.M.^1 ; Kalinovskiy, V.S.^1 ; Andreev, V.M.^1

Ioffe Institute, 26 Polytekhnicheskaya str., St. Petersburg

194021, Russia^1

关键词: Current flow mechanisms;    Fabrication operations;    Growth technologies;    IV characteristics;    Load characteristics;    Potential barriers;    Surface leakage currents;    Wide temperature ranges;   

Others  :  https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/690/1/012036/pdf
DOI  :  10.1088/1742-6596/690/1/012036

来源: IOP

【 摘 要 】

Forward dark and load I - V characteristics of triple-junction GaInP/Ga(In)As/Ge solar cells (SCs) in the temperature range 300 - 80 K have been studied. At temperatures below 200 K, jumps of current and voltage in, respectively, dark and load characteristics were observed experimentally and attributed to the existence of a counter potential barrier formed by isotype heterolayers between the tunnel diode and the Ge p-n junction in the InGaP/Ga(In)As/Ge SC. An analysis of the forward dark characteristics of GaInP/Ga(In)As/Ge SCs, recorded at 80 K, enabled evaluation of the potential and real conversion efficiencies of incident sunlight. The influence exerted by the shape of the side mesa surface of GaInP/Ga(In)As/Ge SCs on the dominant current flow mechanisms was analysed. A method for single-step separate etching was suggested and studied. This method allows one to reduce surface leakage currents and raise the yield of suitable SCs with an efficiency greater than 35% at low sunlight concentrations (C = 10 - 100, T = 300 K). The suggested post-growth technology reduces the number of fabrication operations and the SC production cost and improves the reliability of the SC operation in a wide temperature range.