Theoretical study of the effects of n-type doping in InAs/GaAs quantum dot layer on current–voltage characteristics of intermediate band solar cells

Abstract

We investigated the current-voltage characteristic of InAs/GaAs quantum dot intermediate band solar cells (QD IBSCs) with different n-type doping density in the QD layer. The n-type doping evidently increases the open circuit voltage, meanwhile decreases the short circuit current density, and leads to the conversion efficiency approaching that of the control solar cell, that is the major role of n-type doping is to suppress the effects of QDs on the current-voltage characteristic. Our model adopts practical parameters for simulation rather than those from detailed balanced method, so that the results in our simulation are not overestimated.