Type-II GaSb/GaAs quantum-dot intermediate band with extended optical absorption range for efficient solar cells

Abstract

GaSb/GaAs type-II quantum-dot solar cells (QD SCs) have attracted attention as highly efficient intermediate band SCs due to their infrared absorption. Type-II QDs exhibited a staggered confinement potential, where only holes are strongly confined within the dots. Long wavelength light absorption of the QDSCs is enhanced through the improved carriers number in the IB. The absorption of dots depends on their shape, material quality, and composition. Therefore, the optical properties of the GaSbGaAs QDs before and after thermal treatment are studied. Our intraband studies have shown an extended absorption into the long wavelength region $$1.77 \, \upmu \text {m}$$. The annealed QDs have shown significantly more infrared response of $$7.2 \, \upmu \text {m}$$ compared to as-grown sample. The photon absorption and hole extraction depend strongly on the thermal annealing process. In this context, emission of holes from localized states in GaSb QDs has been studied using conductance–voltage (G–V ) characteristics.