Title
Investigation of polycrystalline Ga<inf>x</inf>In<inf>1-x</inf>P for potential use as a solar cell absorber with tunable bandgap
Date Issued
21 February 2020
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Chikhalkar A.
Gangopadhyay A.
Liu H.
Zhang C.
Smith D.J.
Honsberg C.
King R.R.
Publisher(s)
American Institute of Physics Inc.
Abstract
There is ongoing interest in developing a stable, low-cost, 1.6-1.8 eV top-cell material that can be used for two-junction (tandem) solar cells, particularly in combination with a silicon bottom cell. In this work, polycrystalline GaInP is grown and characterized to explore its properties and use for this purpose. The film composition and deposition temperature are varied to determine their effects on grain size, morphology, and photoluminescence (PL) over a range of bandgaps from 1.35 to 1.7 eV. An Al-assisted post-deposition treatment for 1.7-eV polycrystalline GaInP results in a 90-fold increase in peak photoluminescence (PL) intensity, a 220-fold increase in integrated PL intensity, and increased time-resolved PL lifetime from <2 ns to 44 ns. The increase in PL intensity and lifetime is attributed to a reduction of nonradiative minority-carrier recombination at the top surface, and at grain boundaries near the surface, due to the formation of a higher-bandgap AlGaInP alloy. These materials provide a viable path toward increased minority-carrier concentration under illumination and improved recombination properties needed for high-efficiency tandem solar cells.
Volume
127
Issue
7
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Física de partículas, Campos de la Física
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85081084286
Source
Journal of Applied Physics
ISSN of the container
00218979
Sponsor(s)
This work was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) through the Quantum Energy for Sustainable Solar Technologies (QESST) Engineering Research Center (No. NSF EEC-1041895). The authors gratefully acknowledge the use of equipment in the Solar Power Laboratory and the Eyring Materials Center at Arizona State University (ASU) and the research laboratory of Professor Sefaattin Tongay at ASU.
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus