Efficiency calculations of thin-film GaAs solar cells on Si substrates

Abstract

Dislocation effect upon the efficiency of single-crystal thin-film AlGaAs-GaAs heteroface solar cells on Si substrates is analyzed. Solar-cell properties are calculated based on a simple model; in the model, dislocations act as recombination centers to reduce the minority-carrier diffusion length in each layer and increase the space-charge layer recombination current. Numerical analysis is also carried out to optimize thin-film AlGaAs-GaAs heteroface solar-cell structures. The fabrication of thin-film AlGaAs-GaAs heteroface solar cells with a practical efficiency larger than 18% on Si substrates appears possible if the dislocation density in the thin-film GaAs layer is less than 106 cm−2.