Reducing the transmission loss for below-gap photons is a straightforward way to break the limit of the energy-conversion efficiency of solar cells (SCs). The up-conversion of below-gap photons is very promising for generating additional photocurrent. Here we propose a two-step photon up-conversion SC with a hetero-interface comprising different bandgaps of Al0.3Ga0.7As and GaAs. The below-gap photons for Al0.3Ga0.7As excite GaAs and generate electrons at the hetero-interface. The accumulated electrons at the hetero-interface are pumped upwards into the Al0.3Ga0.7As barrier by below-gap photons for GaAs. Efficient two-step photon up-conversion is achieved by introducing InAs quantum dots at the hetero-interface. We observe not only a dramatic increase in the additional photocurrent, which exceeds the reported values by approximately two orders of magnitude, but also an increase in the photovoltage. These results suggest that the two-step photon up-conversion SC has a high potential for implementation in the next-generation high-efficiency SCs.

We studied the two-step photon absorption (TSPA) process in InAs/GaAs quantum-dot superlattice (QDSL) solar cells. TSPA of subband-gap photons efficiently occurs when electrons are pumped from the valence band to the states above the inhomogeneously distributed fundamental states of QDSLs. The photoluminescence (PL)-excitation spectrum demonstrates an absorption edge attributed to the higher excited states of the QDSLs in between the InAs wetting layer states and the fundamental states of QDSLs. When the absorption edge of the excited state was resonantly excited, the superlinear excitation power dependence of the PL intensity demonstrated that the electron and hole created by the interband transition separately relax into QDSLs. Furthermore, timeresolved PL measurements demonstrated that the electron lifetime is extended by thereby inhibiting recombination with holes, enhancing the second subband-gap absorption.

We investigated the effects of an increase in the barrier height on the enhancement of the efficiency of two-step photo-excitation in InAs quantum dot (QD) solar cells with a dot-in-well structure. Thermal carrier escape of electrons pumped in QD states was drastically reduced by sandwiching InAs/GaAs QDs with a high potential barrier of Al0.3Ga0.7As. The thermal activation energy increased with the introduction of the barrier. The high potential barrier caused suppression of thermal carrier escape and helped realize a high electron density in the QD states. We observed efficient two-step photon absorption as a result of the high occupancy of the QD states at room temperature.

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We demonstrate hot-carrier (HC) generation and extraction processes in InAs/GaAs quantum dot superlattice (QDSL) solar cells with the excitation energy tuned below the GaAs band edge at 15 K. The short-circuit current density and the open-circuit voltage originated from the HC extraction are enhanced by increasing the number of the QDSL layers owing to the increased absorptivity in the QDSLs. The short-circuit current density demonstrates an almost linear dependence with increasing excitation density and increases with increasing excitation energy, which reflects the absorption coefficient in the QDSLs. Conversely, the open-circuit voltage tends to saturate to the same value independently from the excitation energy, indicating that the hot electrons extracted to the conduction band edge of GaAs are retrapped at the open-circuit condition due to a low built-in electric field of ∼1.3 kV cm −1 .