Dependence on the incident light power of the internal electric fields in a GaAs p-i-n solar cell according to bright photoreflectance spectroscopy

Abstract

Bright photoreflectance (BPR) spectroscopy at room temperature is used to examine the internal electric fields in a GaAs p-i-n solar cell for their dependence on the incident light power. Electric fields are observed at 30 µW and 100 µW of incident light. With increasing power, the strengths of the two electric fields are reduced due to the photovoltage effect. The electric field observed at 30 µW is assigned to the p-i interface, which is close to the surface. The other electric field is due to the i-n interface because the incident light penetrates deeper as the light power is increased. The electric field strength of 35.6 kV/cm at the p-i interface is lower than that of 42.9 kV/cm at the i-n interface at 500 µW of light power because the photovoltage effect is proportional to the number of photo-generated carriers, which is reduced as the distance from the surface increases. When the incident light power is similar to the excitation beam power, the electric fields at the p-i interface are saturated.