Reduction of non-radiative recombination by inserting a GaAs strain-relaxation interlayer in InGaAs/GaAsP superlattice solar cells investigated by photo-thermal spectroscopy

Abstract

The role of a GaAs strain-relaxation interlayer inserted into InGaAs/GaAsP superlattice solar cells was evaluated by measuring the piezoelectric photothermal (PPT) signals in the temperature range from 100 K to a device operation temperature of around 340 K. The PPT signals caused by the non-radiative recombination of electrons photo-excited to the first quantized level were observed. The temperature-dependent PPT signal intensities were assessed using an electron carrier relaxation model comprising four processes: radiative recombination, non-radiative recombination, thermionic emission, and tunneling of carriers through the e2-miniband after thermal excitation from the e1-level. The contribution of holes in the hh1 state was also included in this model, in which e1 and e2 are the first and second electron levels in the conduction band, respectively, and hh1 is the first heavy hole level in the valence band of the quantum wells. A similar analysis was conducted using photoluminescence (PL) spectra to elucidate the carrier transition dynamics in greater detail, because PPT and PL measurements are complementary to each other in terms of non-radiative and radiative electron transitions. Consequently, although the non-radiative recombination remained dominant around room temperature, the quantum yield of the carrier tunneling process increased and became comparable to that of non-radiative recombination. This implies that the recombination loss of the photo-excited carriers is suppressed by the insertion of the GaAs interlayer. By clarifying the role of the inserted interlayer with respect to the non-radiative recombination process, the usefulness of the PPT method is demonstrated.