High absorption efficiency of AlGaAs/GaAs superlattice solar cells

Abstract

The effects of excitonic absorption on the solar cell efficiency have been investigated in solar cells with AlGaAs/GaAs superlattice absorption layers. Numerical calculations reveal that excitonic absorption considerably enhances the overall absorption coefficient. The excitonic absorption shows strong peaks at the absorption edge and in the energy region above the band gap. Absorption enhancement is also achieved in the AlGaAs/GaAs superlattice. The measured quantum efficiency spectra of superlattice solar cells at room temperature are reasonably well reproduced by simulations taking excitonic effects into account. The superlattice solar cells are confirmed to have a high absorbance and good temperature stability. The theoretical analysis of the experimental results confirms that the enhanced excitonic absorption in the superlattice absorption layers survives even at 100 °C, which is considered as the actual device temperature under realistic device operations.