Impact of photon recycling and luminescence coupling on III–V single and dual junction photovoltaic devices

Walker, Alexandre W.; Höhn, Oliver; Micha, Daniel Neves; Wagner, Lukas; Helmers, Henning; Bett, Andreas W.; Dimroth, Frank

doi:10.1117/1.jpe.5.053087

Cited by 22 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…The scattering-matrix based optical model has previously been adopted to simulate the effects of photon recycling and luminescent coupling in solar cells. 20,24 It is also comparable to that published by Wilkins et al 25 to model luminescent coupling in planar opto-electronic devices. Fig.…”

Section: -5supporting

confidence: 77%

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Nonradiative lifetime extraction using power-dependent relative photoluminescence of III-V semiconductor double-heterostructures

Walker

Heckelmann

Karcher

et al. 2016

Journal of Applied Physics

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A power-dependent relative photoluminescence measurement method is developed for double-heterostructures composed of III-V semiconductors. Analyzing the data yields insight into the radiative efficiency of the absorbing layer as a function of laser intensity. Four GaAs samples of different thicknesses are characterized, and the measured data are corrected for dependencies of carrier concentration and photon recycling. This correction procedure is described and discussed in detail in order to determine the material's Shockley-Read-Hall lifetime as a function of excitation intensity. The procedure assumes 100% internal radiative efficiency under the highest injection conditions, and we show this leads to less than 0.5% uncertainty. The resulting GaAs material demonstrates a 5.7 ± 0.5 ns nonradiative lifetime across all samples of similar doping (2–3 × 1017 cm−3) for an injected excess carrier concentration below 4 × 1012 cm−3. This increases considerably up to longer than 1 μs under high injection levels due to a trap saturation effect. The method is also shown to give insight into bulk and interface recombination.

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Section: -5supporting

confidence: 77%

“…The observed increase in lifetime also supports the increased luminescence coupling observed in a tandem GaAs/GaAs laser power converter as a function of injection. 24 …”

Section: à3mentioning

confidence: 99%

Nonradiative lifetime extraction using power-dependent relative photoluminescence of III-V semiconductor double-heterostructures

Walker

Heckelmann

Karcher

et al. 2016

Journal of Applied Physics

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“…Radiatively limited solar cells, fabricated out of high quality GaAs and GaInP material, benefit from a strong enhancement in open‐circuit voltage ( V OC ) if photon recycling effects are exploited. Multi‐junction solar cells can also benefit from photon management through luminescence coupling amongst its junctions and photon recycling effects which would ultimately improve energy conversion efficiency by better current matching conditions and V OC increase . Photon management also brings advantages to nanostructured devices in which several repetitions of active layers of quantum wells or quantum dots are commonly necessary to boost optical properties .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Multi-junction solar cells can also benefit from photon management through luminescence coupling amongst its junctions and photon recycling effects which would ultimately improve energy conversion efficiency by better current matching conditions and V OC increase. [7][8][9] Photon management also brings advantages to nanostructured devices in which several repetitions of active layers of quantum wells or quantum dots are commonly necessary to boost optical properties. 10,11 Furthermore, as a general benefit of photon management, cost of materials can also be reduced.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of back side technology for light trapping and photon recycling in GaAs solar cells

Micha

Höhn

Oliva

et al. 2018

Progress in Photovoltaics

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In this work, we propose and realize three different design strategies to implement an optical cavity in GaAs thin film solar cells in order to confine its internal luminescence and hence to exploit photon recycling. The strategies are based on the definition of a highly reflective and very conductive back side, whereas front side light extraction is limited by total internal reflection. We show characterization results on the internal reflectivity of the back reflector and on the contact resistance at the rear side, important quantities for a good functioning of the final solar cell. First, a back side using only metal was optimized with a pure Ag layer leading to an internal reflectivity of 95.2% and a contact resistance of 1.0 × 10−4 Ω for a 1 cm2 device. With a metal‐dielectric stack at the back side and electrical contacts made by metals via point‐contacts, a second approach led to averaged internal reflectivity of 98.0% and contact resistance of 1.8 × 10−4 Ω for a 1 cm2 device. A third strategy in which a transparent conductive oxide in combination with a metal layer was used did not show the expected results in optical and electrical properties. We fabricated and characterized solar cells with the most promising back sides. When comparing with an ordinary reference GaAs solar cell, external radiative efficiency increased by factors of 150% and 90% for the thin film solar cells with pure Ag and with the metal‐dielectric stack at the back side, allowing enhancements of 19 and 13 mV in VOC, respectively.

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“…LC between subcells has been extensively studied in multijunction photovoltaic devices. [25][26][27][28] In tandem solar cells, luminescence in higher-bandgap subcells can be reabsorbed by the lower-bandgap subcells beneath. As LC facilitates in an increase in the photocurrent in the lower-bandgap subcell, it can improve the annual yield of tandem solar cells for terrestrial applications by increasing the tolerance against spectral mismatch when current mismatch due to spectral mismatch conditions is compensated for by the LC current generated in lower-bandgap subcells.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of luminescence coupling effect in three-terminal tandem solar cells

2018

J. Photon. Energy

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The properties of luminescence coupling (LC) in multijunction solar cells were investigated in three-terminal InGaP//InGaAsP and InGaP/GaAs//InGaAsP tandem solar cells fabricated using the bonding technique through metal nanoparticle (MNP) arrays, where // denotes the mechanical stacking using MNP arrays. Power extraction in the three-terminal tandem solar cells is evaluated, showing that the power extraction in the devices is equivalent to a sum of the power extraction of the top and bottom subcells. In addition, the properties of the LC effect are investigated in the three-terminal tandem devices. The LC current increases with the illuminated light intensity and shows a bias-voltage dependency of the subcell that is emitting luminescence. We also discuss the impact of LC on the power extraction of the three-terminal tandem solar cells. © The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI.

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Impact of photon recycling and luminescence coupling on III–V single and dual junction photovoltaic devices

Cited by 22 publications

References 31 publications

Nonradiative lifetime extraction using power-dependent relative photoluminescence of III-V semiconductor double-heterostructures

Nonradiative lifetime extraction using power-dependent relative photoluminescence of III-V semiconductor double-heterostructures

Development of back side technology for light trapping and photon recycling in GaAs solar cells

Analysis of luminescence coupling effect in three-terminal tandem solar cells

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