Modeling the Effect of ARC and other Parameters on the Efficiency of GaAs Solar Cell Using Silvaco

Abstract

Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) based solar cell which have nearly ideal direct bandgap of 1.43eV hold the highest single junction solar cell efficiency. GaAs solar cell without Anti-Reflective Coating (ARC) layer was studied and shows the efficiency ranges between 8% to 15%, followed by GaAs solar cell with efficiency ranges between 20% to 25% with ARC layer. The substrate thickness for both GaAs solar cell was varied from 0.1μm to 1.0μm. Increased of P-type substrate thickness shows a small variation in efficiency with parabolic shape, while increased of N-type substrate thicknesss increased the efficiency between 21% to 25% for single layer GaAs with ARC thickness. Besides that, increased of P-type doping concentration from 1×1018cm-3 to 1×1019cm-3 and fixed N-type doping will decreased the efficiency. However increased the N-type doping concentration from 1×1017cm-3 to 1×1018cm-3 and fixed the P-type doping will increased the efficiency. The thickness of ARC layer on GaAs solar cell was studied and shows that highest efficiency achieved at narrow thickness of ARC.