Monolithic crystalline multijunction solar cell development and analysis at the US Air Force research laboratory

Mayberry, Clay; Reinhardt, Kitt; Kreifels, Theodore Louis

doi:10.1016/s0960-1481(02)00215-x

Cited by 9 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Normally, high n and high J 0 indicate a poor quality bulk material or junction interface in the p–n diodes. For triple‐junction (3‐J) solar cells, a high n would be presented because the n value (= n top + n mid + n bot ) of a 3‐J solar cell is the sum of ideality factors of the top‐cell ( n top ), middle‐cell ( n mid ), and bottom‐cell ( n bot ) . The typical n value of a 3‐J InGaP/GaAs/Ge solar cell of about 4–5 and the n value of individual junctions of 1.5–2 were reported .…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For triple‐junction (3‐J) solar cells, a high n would be presented because the n value (= n top + n mid + n bot ) of a 3‐J solar cell is the sum of ideality factors of the top‐cell ( n top ), middle‐cell ( n mid ), and bottom‐cell ( n bot ) . The typical n value of a 3‐J InGaP/GaAs/Ge solar cell of about 4–5 and the n value of individual junctions of 1.5–2 were reported . An average ideality factor value n ave ( n /3) of approximately 1.67 (1.60) for the triple‐junction solar cells with (without) QDs before a passivation coating was obtained and was used to examine the quality of epitaxial film grown by MOCVD, in this study.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Optical and electrical characteristics of high‐efficiency InGaP/InGaAs/Ge triple‐junction solar cell incorporated with InGaAs/GaAs QD layers in the middle cell

Lee

Yang

et al. 2015

Progress in Photovoltaics

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This study presents high efficiency InGaP/InGaAs/Ge triple-junction (3-J) solar cells incorporated in the middle cell with layers of InGaAs/GaAs quantum dots (QDs) grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition to achieve 33.5% conversion efficiency (η) under one-sun AM 1.5 G illumination. We investigated the epitaxial structure and optical and electrical properties of InGaP/InGaAs/Ge 3-J solar cells with and without layers of QDs. We then measured X-ray diffraction (XRD), photoluminescence (PL), optical reflectance, dark and photovoltaic current-voltage (I-V) characteristics, external quantum efficiency (EQE) response, and capacitance-voltage (C-V) as a function of frequency under dark and illuminated conditions at room temperature. The use of 50 pairs of In 0.7 Ga 0.3 As (QD)/GaAs (Barrier) QD structure produced an impressive 35% enhancement in EQE at wavelengths of 900-930 nm. This resulted in a short-circuit current density of 15.43 mA/cm 2 , an open-circuit voltage of 2.54 V, a fill factor of 84.7%, and a η of 33.5%. The 3-J cell with the proposed layers of QDs also demonstrated a 1.0% absolute gain in efficiency compared with a reference cell without QDs. Our XRD, PL, and C-V results revealed that highly stacked InGaAs/GaAs QD layers of high quality can be grown with very little degradation in crystal quality and without the need for strain compensation techniques.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optical and electrical characteristics of high‐efficiency InGaP/InGaAs/Ge triple‐junction solar cell incorporated with InGaAs/GaAs QD layers in the middle cell

Lee

Yang

et al. 2015

Progress in Photovoltaics

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“…An MJ cell consists of several subcells, each subcell posses its own parameters; therefore, the vector parameters in Equation () represent equivalent parameters of the MJ cell . At non‐uniform illumination, a solar cell may operate at negative voltage, and therefore, the aforementioned model is extended to include an additional term describing the diode avalanche breakdown at high negative voltages of the cell.…”

Section: Equation Of Single‐diode Multi‐junction Solar Cell Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This model was used also for the investigation of the dependence of MJ cell performance on spectrum . An MJ cell model which includes recombination, tunneling, diffusion mechanisms, and parasitic resistances is described in . These models provide a good quality curve fitting; however, the subcells' parameters are not dealt with.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Estimation of multi‐junction solar cell parameters

Appelbaum

2012

Progress in Photovoltaics

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The paper deals with the parameter estimation of InGaP/GaAs/Ge multi‐junction solar cell and is based on minimizing the difference between the measured I–V and the theoretical I–V characteristics—the objective function. The parameter estimation was first performed on a multi‐junction solar cell represented by a single‐diode model containing eight parameters: five conventional parameters and three additional parameters for the negative diode breakdown voltage. An extended model is also presented for detailed analysis of the multi‐junction cell containing three subcells connected in series. In this model, each subcell is represented by eight parameters, and therefore a total of 24 parameters describe the cell. The parameter estimation procedure requires derivatives of the first and the second order of an objective function, filtering of noisy measurements, iteration algorithm, guessing of initial parameters, zero finding, and stopping criteria. The paper presents a mathematical method and a procedure for extracting solar cell parameters based on I–V measured data. The parameters' values may be used for analysis of the current mismatch of the subcells, the power loss, the output power of the multi‐junction cell for different environmental conditions, and to some extent, for cell fabrication. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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“…After increasing the efficiency of triple-junction solar cells from 24% in 1998 to 30% in 2003, [4][5][6] efforts to increase cell performance have shifted to new approaches capable of yielding 33-35% efficiency. Solar cells incorporating lattice mismatch buffers promise to open the trade space for new junction materials.…”

Section: Multijunction Solar Cellsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Progress in crystalline multijunction and thin-film photovoltaics

Senft

2005

Journal of Elec Materi

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Photovoltaics are important in terrestrial applications such as remote power and renewable energy but are the primary source of electrical power for space systems. For space applications, priorities are high conversion efficiency and resistance to radiation-induced degradation. The emphasis is on III-V multijunction solar cells and comparatively lower efficiency but flexible, lightweight thin-film solar cells. Triple-junction III-V solar cells have reached conversion efficiencies of 30% at air mass zero (AM0). New lattice mismatch techniques and nitride materials hold promise for further efficiency increases. Thin-film solar cells generally have less than 15% efficiency but greater radiation resistance, lower cost, and lower mass.

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Monolithic crystalline multijunction solar cell development and analysis at the US Air Force research laboratory

Cited by 9 publications

References 4 publications

Optical and electrical characteristics of high‐efficiency InGaP/InGaAs/Ge triple‐junction solar cell incorporated with InGaAs/GaAs QD layers in the middle cell

Optical and electrical characteristics of high‐efficiency InGaP/InGaAs/Ge triple‐junction solar cell incorporated with InGaAs/GaAs QD layers in the middle cell

Estimation of multi‐junction solar cell parameters

Progress in crystalline multijunction and thin-film photovoltaics

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