15.3%-Efficient GaAsP Solar Cells on GaP/Si Templates

Abstract

As single-junction Si solar cells approach their practical efficiency limits, a new pathway is necessary to increase efficiency in order to realize more cost-effective photovoltaics. Integrating III–V cells onto Si in a multijunction architecture is a promising approach that can achieve high efficiency while leveraging the infrastructure already in place for Si and III–V technology. In this Letter, we demonstrate a record 15.3%-efficient 1.7 eV GaAsP top cell on GaP/Si, enabled by recent advances in material quality in conjunction with an improved device design and a high-performance antireflection coating. We further present a separate Si bottom cell with a 1.7 eV GaAsP optical filter to absorb most of the visible light with an efficiency of 6.3%, showing the feasibility of monolithic III–V/Si tandems with >20% efficiency. Through spectral efficiency analysis, we compare our results to previously published GaAsP and Si devices, projecting tandem GaAsP/Si efficiencies of up to 25.6% based on current state-of-the-art individual subcells. With the aid of modeling, we further illustrate a realistic path toward 30% GaAsP/Si tandems for high-efficiency, monolithically integrated photovoltaics.