Growth of resonant cavity quantum well light emitting diodes and two-junction solar cells by solid source molecular beam epitaxy

Abstract

Monolithic resonant cavity light emitting diodes (RCLED's) for room temperature operation at 650–670 nm and 850–880 nm wavelengths and double-junction GaInP/GaAs solar cells have been designed and grown using a toxic-gas-free solid-source molecular beam epitaxy method. The presence of the microcavity in RCLED's causes strong cavity enhancement, which can be utilized to modify natural spontaneous emission. These devices are shown to exhibit performance characteristics that are better than those of conventional LED's in many ways. They may be suitable for optical fibre communications and interconnects where a relatively high speed, good fibre coupling efficiency, nearly monochromatic spectrum, and long-term reliability are desirable. The GaInP/GaAs cascade cells also reported in this paper are state-of-the-art, exhibiting conversion efficiencies up to 23.2% at one-sun air-mass-zero illumination. With so high efficiency and good radiation resistance, the cascade solar cells are potential candidates for solar power generation of satellites.