Abstract
In this paper, we report the electrical simulation results of a proposed GaInP nanowire (NW)/Si two-junction solar cell. The NW physical dimensions are determined for optimized solar energy absorption and current matching between each subcell. Two key factors (minority carrier lifetime, surface recombination velocity) affecting power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the solar cell are highlighted, and a practical guideline to design high-efficiency two-junction solar cell is thus provided. Considering the practical surface and bulk defects in GaInP semiconductor, a promising PCE of 27.5 % can be obtained. The results depict the usefulness of integrating NWs to construct high-efficiency multi-junction III–V solar cells.
Highlights
Multi-junction solar cells are constituted by series-connected multiple semiconductor layers to convert the energy of light directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect
We further report the electrical performance via simulation, where the physical dimensions are taken by considering the condition of current matching and maximized solar energy absorption
One can find that above 90 % incident light is absorbed by this nanowire array (NWA)/Si substrate structure, which implies the high absorption capacity of the proposed two-junction solar cell
Summary
Multi-junction solar cells are constituted by series-connected multiple semiconductor layers (subcells) to convert the energy of light directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect. By dividing the broad solar spectrum into smaller sections, the multi-junction solar cell can convert solar energy more efficiently. The high efficiency of thin-film multi-junction solar cell is gained at the cost of increased complexity and manufacturing price. The development of high-efficiency, low-cost photovoltaic device is urgently needed. Due to their potential to realize low-cost and high energy conversion efficiency solar cells, semiconductor nanowire array (NWA) is a topic of intense research for photovoltaic applications. Some axially connected nanowire two-junction cells are theoretically designed to obtain high-efficiency solar cells [4]. Considering the fact that many kinds of III–V NWAs have been successfully prepared on heterosubstrates (such as Si) [5], the concept of multi-junction
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