Current transport efficiency analysis of multijunction solar cells by luminescence imaging

Xu, Hao; Delamarre, Amaury; Jeco, Bernice Mae F. Yu; Johnson, H. M.; Watanabe, Kentaroh; Okada, Yoshitaka; Guillemoles, Jean‐François; Nakano, Yoshiaki; Sugiyama, Masakazu

doi:10.1002/pip.3140

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…As such, they have not previously been reported due to the difficulty to simultaneously account for all underlying physical processes. We expect such spectrally and directionally resolved understanding of photon-recycling processes to be especially beneficial for understanding the internal electrical and optical properties of various thin-film devices, such as the emerging ultrathin GaAs photovoltaic devices [21][22][23][24], and to complement existing advanced modeling and characterization frameworks of multijunction solar cells [25,26].…”

Section: B Characteristics Under Illuminationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interplay of Photons and Charge Carriers in Thin-Film Devices

et al. 2021

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Thin films are gaining ground in photonics and optoelectronics because of promising improvements in their efficiency and functionality, as well as decreased material usage compared with bulk technologies. However, the proliferation of thin films would benefit not only from continuous improvements in their fabrication, but also from a unified and accurate theoretical framework of the interplay of photons and charge carriers. In particular, such a framework would need to account quantitatively and self-consistently for photon recycling and interference effects. To this end, here, we combine the drift-diffusion formalism of charge-carrier dynamics and the fluctuational electrodynamics of photon transport self-consistently using the recently introduced interference-extended radiative-transfer equations. The resulting equation system can be solved numerically using standard simulation tools and, as an example, here, we apply it to study well-known GaAs thin-film solar cells. In addition to obtaining the expected device characteristics, we analyze the underlying complex photon-transport and recombination-generation processes, demonstrating the physical insight provided for unevenly excited structures through the direct and self-consistent description of photons and charge carriers. The methodology proposed here is general and can be used to obtain an accurate physical insight into a wide range of planar optoelectronic devices, of which the thin-film single-junction solar cells studied here are only one example.

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Section: B Characteristics Under Illuminationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interplay of Photons and Charge Carriers in Thin-Film Devices

et al. 2021

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“…We expect this to be beneficial for understanding and optimizing the internal electrical and optical properties of various thin-film devices, such as the emerging ultra-thin GaAs photovoltaic devices, [21][22][23] and to complement existing advanced modeling and characterization frameworks of multi-junction solar cells. 10,24 To study how the optical power propagates within the solar cell structure studied here, Fig. 7 shows the the Kresolved spectral radiance of internally emitted photons as a function of position and K at the same photon energy 1.43 eV for (a) TE and (b) TM polarization, again for 0.9 V. It can be seen that in the escape cone determined by K/k 0 ≤ 1, there is a clear positive optical power flow out of the device in the bottom right corner of the figures.…”

Section: B Characteristics Under Illuminationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interplay of photons and charge carriers in thin-film devices

Kivisaari,

Partanen,

Sadi

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Thin films are gaining ground in photonics and optoelectronics, promising improvements in their efficiency and functionality as well as decreased material usage as compared to bulk technologies. However, proliferation of thin films would benefit not only from continuous improvements in their fabrication, but also from a unified and accurate theoretical framework of the interplay of photons and charge carriers. In particular, such a framework would need to account quantitatively and self-consistently for photon recycling and interference effects. To this end, here we combine the drift-diffusion formalism of charge carrier dynamics and the fluctuational electrodynamics of photon transport self-consistently using the recently introduced interference-extended radiative transfer equations. The resulting equation system can be solved numerically using standard simulation tools, and as an example, here we apply it to study well-known GaAs thin-film solar cells. In addition to obtaining the expected device characteristics, we analyze the underlying complex photon transport and recombination-generation processes that represent a full solution to the inhomogeneous Maxwell's equations and that are generated directly as a result of solving the self-consistent model. The methodology proposed in this work is general and can be used to obtain accurate physical insight into a wide range of planar optoelectronic devices, of which the thin-film single-junction solar cells studied here are only one example.

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“…10 The current mismatch among subcells can be mitigated by the LC effect, which results in excess photocurrent generation in a current-limiting subcell. 11 Thus, upon fabrication, it can be used to our advantage by relaxing the requirement for current-matched subcells in MJSCs. 12 Previous studies demonstrated varying LC effect efficiencies in Si-based 13 and Ge-based 14 lattice-matched MJSCs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Luminescent coupling effect in InGaP/GaAs/InGaAs inverted metamorphic triple-junction solar cell

Thakur,

Yu Jeco-Espaldon,

Okada

2024

J. Photon. Energy

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The luminescent coupling (LC) effect is one of the strategies for further boosting the efficiency of multijunction solar cells by improving the current mismatch among subcells. This work examined the LC effect in III-V compound InGaP/GaAs/InGaAs inverted metamorphic triple-junction solar cell (IMM-3JSC) by the laser beam-induced current mapping characterization method. A strong LC effect in the bottom subcell of the IMM-3J sample was demonstrated with an LC yield of around 0.13 under 7 suns irradiance. In addition, by effectively homogenizing the LC effect, the bottom subcell of IMM-3JSCs may potentially gain a current density of ∼0.6 mA∕cm 2 at 10 suns irradiance.

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Current transport efficiency analysis of multijunction solar cells by luminescence imaging

Cited by 6 publications

References 39 publications

Interplay of Photons and Charge Carriers in Thin-Film Devices

Interplay of Photons and Charge Carriers in Thin-Film Devices

Interplay of photons and charge carriers in thin-film devices

Luminescent coupling effect in InGaP/GaAs/InGaAs inverted metamorphic triple-junction solar cell

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