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Price declines and volume growth of concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) systems are analysed using the learning curve methodology and compared with other forms of solar electricity generation. Logarithmic regression analysis determines a learning rate of 18% for CPV systems with 90% confidence of that rate being between 14 and 22%, which is higher than the learning rates of other solar generation systems (11% for CSP and 12 to 14% for PV). Current CPV system prices are competitive with PV and CSP, which, when combined with the higher learning rate, indicates that CPV is likely to further improve its marketability. A target price of 1 $/W in 2020 could be achieved with a compound growth rate of 67% for the total deployed volume between 2014 and 2020, which would realize a cumulative deployed volume of 7900 MW. Other projections of deployment volumes from commercial sources are converted using the learning rate into future price scenarios, resulting in predicted prices in the range of 1.1 to 1.3 $/W in 2020.

We show that the degree of thermally induced quantum well intermixing is dependent on the growth quality of epitaxial layer structures. Two different undoped quantum well/barrier structures are studied: an InGaAs/InGaAsP 1.5 μm laser-like structure, and an InGaAs/InP structure. In both cases, the temperature of growth of one or more layers is altered and results compared with a control wafer. Wafers with material grown at the lower temperature display blueshifts of up to 80 meV in the QW emission energy during the early stages of rapid thermal annealing. Wafers grown at temperatures that are more standard exhibit excellent stability. We examine shifts of both the heavy hole and light hole transitions as a function of intermixing via transmission measurements, and conclude that interdiffusion occurs primarily on the group V sublattice.

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