scholarly journals Growth and Fabrication of GaAs Thin-Film Solar Cells on a Si Substrate via Hetero Epitaxial Lift-Off

2022 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 820
Author(s):  
Seungwan Woo ◽  
Geunhwan Ryu ◽  
Taesoo Kim ◽  
Namgi Hong ◽  
Jae-Hoon Han ◽  
...  

We demonstrate, for the first time, GaAs thin film solar cells epitaxially grown on a Si substrate using a metal wafer bonding and epitaxial lift-off process. A relatively thin 2.1 μm GaAs buffer layer was first grown on Si as a virtual substrate, and a threading dislocation density of 1.8 × 107 cm−2 was achieved via two In0.1Ga0.9As strained insertion layers and 6× thermal cycle annealing. An inverted p-on-n GaAs solar cell structure grown on the GaAs/Si virtual substrate showed homogenous photoluminescence peak intensities throughout the 2″ wafer. We show a 10.6% efficient GaAs thin film solar cell without anti-reflection coatings and compare it to nominally identical upright structure solar cells grown on GaAs and Si. This work paves the way for large-scale and low-cost wafer-bonded III-V multi-junction solar cells.

RSC Advances ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (109) ◽  
pp. 89635-89643 ◽  
Author(s):  
Priyanka U. Londhe ◽  
Ashwini B. Rohom ◽  
Nandu B. Chaure

Highly crystalline and stoichiometric CIS thin films have been electrodeposited from non-aqueous bath at temperature 130 °C. Superstrate solar cell structure (FTO/CdS/CIS/Au) exhibited 4.5% power conversion efficiency.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2070 (1) ◽  
pp. 012043
Author(s):  
S S Hegde ◽  
K Ramesh

Abstract Photovoltaics (PV) have become increasingly popular and reached as the third-largest renewable energy source. Thin-film solar cells made from earth-abundant, inexpensive and environmentally friendly materials are needed to replace the current PV technologies whose large-scale applications are limited by material and/or resource constraints. Near optimum direct optical bandgap of 1.3 eV, high absorption coefficient (>104 cm−1), less toxic, and abundant raw resources along with considerable scalability have made tin sulfide (SnS) as a strategic choice for next-generation PVs. In this review, limitations of leading commercial PV technologies and the status of a few alternate low-cost PV materials are outlined. Recent literature on crucial physical properties of SnS thin-films and the present status of SnS thin-film-based solar cells are discussed. Deficiency and adequacy of some of the key properties of SnS including carrier mobility (μ), minority carrier lifetime (τ), and absorption coefficient (α) are discussed in comparison of existing commercial solar cell materials. Future research trends on SnS based solar cells to enhance their conversion efficiencies towards the theoretical maximum of 24% from present ~5% and its prospectus as next-generation solar cell is also discussed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
pp. 3939-3942
Author(s):  
Nikhil Deep Gupta

The paper discusses and compares the Lambertian limits for light trapping (LT) in GaAs active layer based thin film solar cells as described by different mathematical theories and expressions. The Lambertian limits for thin film GaAs solar cell provide the maximum efficiency that can be achieved through LT structures and also indicate the advantage that these structure can provide for the design of GaAs thin film solar cell structure. The purpose to discuss difference Lambertian limit expressions is to understand and predict, which limiting benchmark value is more suited for nano LT structures based GaAs active material solar cells, considering GaAs material properties. The paper also compares these calculated limiting values with different nano LT structures including photonic crystal structures based designs proposed by the author. The aim is to check how much close a particular proposed structure is to the Lambertian values, so that we can predict that which is more suitable design to get best efficiency out of the single junction GaAs material based structure. The paper discussed the three Lambertian theories including that of Yablonovitch, Green and Schuster.


1996 ◽  
Vol 426 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin A. Green ◽  
Alistair B. Sproul ◽  
Tom Puzzer ◽  
Guang Fu Zheng ◽  
Paul Basore ◽  
...  

AbstractA new silicon parallel multilayer solar cell structure has recently been reported which can give high solar cell energy conversion efficiency from low quality silicon material. Advantages of this structure are described as is recent characterization work which compares the properties of grain boundaries in experimental devices to those predicted by earlier calculations.


Crystals ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yunyan Zhang ◽  
Huiyun Liu

Solar energy is abundant, clean, and renewable, making it an ideal energy source. Solar cells are a good option to harvest this energy. However, it is difficult to balance the cost and efficiency of traditional thin-film solar cells, whereas nanowires (NW) are far superior in making high-efficiency low-cost solar cells. Therefore, the NW solar cell has attracted great attention in recent years and is developing rapidly. Here, we review the great advantages, recent breakthroughs, novel designs, and remaining challenges of NW solar cells. Special attention is given to (but not limited to) the popular semiconductor NWs for solar cells, in particular, Si, GaAs(P), and InP.


2010 ◽  
Vol 1245 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xinhua Geng ◽  
Ying Zhao ◽  
Xiandan Zhang ◽  
Guofu Hou ◽  
Huizhi Ren ◽  
...  

AbstractThis paper reviews our research progresses of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) and microcrystalline (μc-Si:H) based thin film solar cells. It coves the three areas of high efficiency, low cost process, and large-area proto-type multi-chamber system design and solar module deposition. With an innovative VHF power profiling technique, we have effectively controlled the crystalline evolution and made uniform μc-Si:H materials along the growth direction, which was used as the intrinsic layers of pin solar cells. We attained a 9.36% efficiency with a μc-Si:H single-junction cell structure. We have successfully resolved the cross-contamination issue in a single-chamber system and demonstrated the feasibility of using single-chamber process for manufacturing. We designed and built a large-area multi-chamber VHF system, which is used for depositing a-Si:H/μc-Si:H micromorph tandem modules on 0.79-m2 glass substrates. Preliminary module efficiency has exceeded 8%.


Author(s):  
Michael G. Mauk

The prospects for cost-effective flat plate (non-concentrator) solar cells based on III-V compound semiconductors (e.g., GaAs, InP, AlAs, and their alloys) are reviewed. Solar cells made in III-V materials are expensive, but outperform solar cells in every other materials system. The relatively high cost of compound semiconductor wafers necessitates a means to eliminate their use as substrates for epitaial growth of conventional III-V solar cells. There are several approaches to this end, including thin-film solar cells on low-cost, dissimilar substrates such as glass, ceramics, and metal sheets; III-V solar cells epitaxially grown on silicon wafers; film transfer (‘epitaxial lift off’) techniques that allow re-use of the seeding substrate; and assembled arrays of small III-V solar cells on low-cost substrates. Grain boundary effects in polycrystalline III-V films can severely degrade solar cell performance, and impede the application of established thin-film technologies, as developed for amorphous silicon and II-VI semiconductor photovoltaics, to III-V semiconductor-based solar cells. The nearly fifty years of effort in developing thin-film III-V solar cells has underscored the difficulty of achieving large-grain sizes and/or low recombination grain boundaries in polycrystalline films of III-V semiconductors.


2011 ◽  
Vol 1327 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dong Won Kang ◽  
Jong Seok Woo ◽  
Sung Hwan Choi ◽  
Seung Yoon Lee ◽  
Heon Min. Lee ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTWe have propsed MgO/AZO bi-layer transparent conducting oxide (TCO) for thin film solar cells. From XRD analysis, it was observed that the full width at half maximum of AZO decreased when it was grown on MgO precursor. The Hall mobility of MgO/AZO bi-layer was 17.5cm2/Vs, whereas that of AZO was 20.8cm2/Vs. These indicated that the crystallinity of AZO decreased by employing MgO precursor. However, the haze (=total diffusive transmittance/total transmittance) characteristics of highly crystalline AZO was significantly improved by MgO precursor. The average haze in the visible region increased from 14.3 to 48.2%, and that in the NIR region increased from 6.3 to 18.9%. The reflectance of microcrystalline silicon solar cell was decreased and external quantum efficiency was significantly improved by applying MgO/AZO bi-layer TCO. The efficiency of microcrystalline silicon solar cell with MgO/AZO bi-layer front TCO was 6.66%, whereas the efficiency of one with AZO single TCO was 5.19%.


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