Current flow and potential efficiency of solar cells based on GaAs and GaSb p-n junctions

Abstract

Dependence of the efficiency of single-junction and multijunction solar cells on the mechanisms of current flow in photoactive p-n junctions, specifically on the form of the dark current-voltage characteristic J-V, has been studied. The resistanceless J-V j characteristic (with the series resistance disregarded) of a multijunction solar cell has the same shape as the characteristic of a single-junction cell: both feature a set of exponential portions. This made it possible to develop a unified analytical method for calculating the efficiency of singlejunction and multijunction solar cells. The equation relating the efficiency to the photogenerated current at each portion of the J-V j characteristic is derived. For p-n junctions in GaAs and GaSb, the following characteristics were measured: the dark J-V characteristic, the dependence of the open-circuit voltage on the illumination intensity P-V OC, and the dependence of the luminescence intensity on the forward current L-J. Calculated dependences of potential efficiency (under idealized condition for equality to unity of external quantum yield) on the photogenerated current for single-junction GaAs and GaSb solar cells and a GaAs/GaSb tandem are plotted. The form of these dependences corresponds to the shape of J-V j characteristics: there are the diffusion- and recombination-related portions; in some cases, the tunneling-trapping portion is also observed. At low degrees of concentration of solar radiation (C < 10), an appreciable contribution to photogenerated current is made by recombination component. It is an increase in this component in the case of irradiation with 6.78-MeV protons or 1-MeV electrons that brings about a decrease in the efficiency of conversion of unconcentrated solar radiation.