Solar cell generations over 40% efficiency

King, Richard R.; Bhusari, D. M.; Larrabee, D. C.; Liu, X.-Q.; Rehder, Eric; Edmondson, K.; Cotal, H.; Jones, Russell K.; Ermer, J.; Fetzer, C. M.; Law, D. C.; Karam, N.H.

doi:10.1002/pip.1255

Cited by 259 publications

(132 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…This type of solar cell has reached record efficiencies up to 41.6% under concentrated sunlight illumination and is produced by several companies [1][2][3]. In the case of the lattice matched Ga 0.49 In 0.51 P/Ga 0.99 In 0.01 As/Ge material combination, the Ge bottom junction is known to generate a large excess current, which limits the device performance.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wafer bonded four‐junction GaInP/GaAs//GaInAsP/GaInAs concentrator solar cells with 44.7% efficiency

Dimroth

Grave

Beutel

et al. 2014

Progress in Photovoltaics

528

301

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Triple-junction solar cells from III-V compound semiconductors have thus far delivered the highest solar-electric conversion efficiencies. Increasing the number of junctions generally offers the potential to reach even higher efficiencies, but material quality and the choice of bandgap energies turn out to be even more importance than the number of junctions. Several four-junction solar cell architectures with optimum bandgap combination are found for lattice-mismatched III-V semiconductors as high bandgap materials predominantly possess smaller lattice constant than low bandgap materials. Direct wafer bonding offers a new opportunity to combine such mismatched materials through a permanent, electrically conductive and optically transparent interface. In this work, a GaAs-based top tandem solar cell structure was bonded to an InP-based bottom tandem cell with a difference in lattice constant of 3.7%. The result is a GaInP/GaAs//GaInAsP/GaInAs four-junction solar cell with a new record efficiency of 44.7% at 297-times concentration of the AM1.5d (ASTM G173-03) spectrum. This work demonstrates a successful pathway for reaching highest conversion efficiencies with III-V multi-junction solar cells having four and in the future even more junctions.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wafer bonded four‐junction GaInP/GaAs//GaInAsP/GaInAs concentrator solar cells with 44.7% efficiency

Dimroth

Grave

Beutel

et al. 2014

Progress in Photovoltaics

528

301

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“…I mproving the cost/efficiency ratio of III-V-based multijunction cells can be done through efficiency enhancements, by adding additional junctions to the cell stack 1 or through the lowering of cost by replacing the expensive germanium substrate with silicon. Integrating III-V semiconductors and silicon requires overcoming their differences in lattice parameters and thermal expansion coefficient, as well as their polar/non-polar interfaces 2,3 .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Surface-passivated GaAsP single-nanowire solar cells exceeding 10% efficiency grown on silicon

Holm¹,

Jørgensen²,

et al. 2013

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Continued development of high-efficiency multi-junction solar cells requires growth of latticemismatched materials. Today, the need for lattice matching both restricts the bandgap combinations available for multi-junctions solar cells and prohibits monolithic integration of high-efficiency III-V materials with low-cost silicon solar cells. The use of III-V nanowires is the only known method for circumventing this lattice-matching constraint, and therefore it is necessary to develop growth of nanowires with bandgaps 41.4 eV. Here we present the first gold-free gallium arsenide phosphide nanowires grown on silicon by means of direct epitaxial growth. We demonstrate that their bandgap can be controlled during growth and fabricate core-shell nanowire solar cells. We further demonstrate that surface passivation is of crucial importance to reach high efficiencies, and present a record efficiency of 10.2% for a core-shell single-nanowire solar cell. I mproving the cost/efficiency ratio of III-V-based multijunction cells can be done through efficiency enhancements, by adding additional junctions to the cell stack 1 or through the lowering of cost by replacing the expensive germanium substrate with silicon. Integrating III-V semiconductors and silicon requires overcoming their differences in lattice parameters and thermal expansion coefficient, as well as their polar/non-polar interfaces 2,3 . When constrained to a silicon-bottom cell, the optimum dualjunction solar cell, the simplest multi-junction solar cell, has a theoretical 1-sun peak efficiency between 33 and 43% (refs 4,5) when combined with a 1.7 eV bandgap top cell; this can be achieved with a III-V semiconductor consisting of GaAs 0.8 P 0.2.The small contact interface between the nanowire and the silicon substrate ensures that strain from lattice mismatch is relaxed within the first few monolayers 6 . Using the method of gallium (Ga)-assisted growth, gold-free perfect single crystal, gallium arsenide (GaAs) nanowires have been grown directly on silicon 7 . Higher bandgap gallium phosphide (GaP) 8 and gallium arsenide phosphide (GaAsP) 9,10 nanowires have also been grown, but only using gold as growth catalyst. Gold is incompatible with silicon 11 , and has been shown to incorporate into the III-V crystal 12 and degrade the optoelectronic properties of the nanowires 13 . In addition, a sparse array of nanowires can absorb almost all incoming light 14 , meaning that only minute amounts of the expensive III-V material is needed for making a nanowire top cell. Devices consisting of a contacted ensemble of free-standing nanowires have been exposed to temperature changes of up to 200 K, demonstrating that their strain-relieving ability is able to overcome the difference in thermal expansion 15 . To fully utilize their advantage with regards to non-lattice-matched growth, the nanowires themselves must also be able to function well as solar cells. ResultsGa-assisted GaAs 0.8 P 0.2 nanowire growth. High-quality GaAsP nanowires were grown without the use of a buffer la...

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“…When using thin film solar cells, the cost can be reduced compared to crystalline silicon panels, but the conversion efficiency falls down to approximately 10% [5]. The conversion efficiency of the current generation of solar panels is up to 40% at a cost comparable to thin-film technology [5][6][7][8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Position Control of Solar Panel Receiver by Joint Generated Power and Received Signal Power Maximization

Mohammed

2018

Tikrit j. eng. sci.

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Keywords: Solar panel microcontroller receiver design optical wireless communication (OWC) sun tracking A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C TThe use of solar cells as photodetectors in Optical Wireless Communications (OWC) systems, is acquiring an increasing attention. This is due to the fact that a solar cell can detect an incident optical signal without the need to be biased by an external dc source, unlike traditional photodetectors. Basically, solar cells are designed to be used in solar energy harvesting systems. However, the solar cells are used during the day time and they remain idle at night. Then, they can be used in other applications, such as optical signal detection during night hours. Moreover, the efficiency of solar systems and solar receivers can be maximized by using dual axis light source tracking, to keep the cell orientation at the direction that results in the maximum electrical output. Therefore, in this paper, a solar cell positioning algorithm is proposed to track the maximum power point of both of the sun at day time and the optical communication signal at night. The proposed system can automatically distinguish between its two operation modes and then provides the necessary control. The proposed system is implemented and tested under realistic outdoor environment. It showed an accurate detection of the operation situation and also an accurate and smooth positioning during the specific operation mode. The measurement of the generated and consumed power by the designed system has emphasized it feasibility.

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Solar cell generations over 40% efficiency

Cited by 259 publications

References 27 publications

Wafer bonded four‐junction GaInP/GaAs//GaInAsP/GaInAs concentrator solar cells with 44.7% efficiency

Wafer bonded four‐junction GaInP/GaAs//GaInAsP/GaInAs concentrator solar cells with 44.7% efficiency

Surface-passivated GaAsP single-nanowire solar cells exceeding 10% efficiency grown on silicon

Position Control of Solar Panel Receiver by Joint Generated Power and Received Signal Power Maximization

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