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Increased Spectrum Utilization with GaAsP/SiGe Solar Cells Grown on Silicon Substrates

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Abstract

World-record solar-to-electricity energy conversion efficiency has been previously achieved by photovoltaic devices that maximize the use of the solar spectrum, such as multi-junction tandem solar cells. These cells are made of III-V materials whose high cost is a strong limitation on their widespread commercial application. One solution to suppress the cost of these types of devices is to grow III-V solar cells on low-cost carrier materials such as silicon. We will discuss the material, structure and analysis of GaAsP/SiGe-on-silicon multi-junction tandem solar cells. A low threading dislocation density is realized by effective lattice-matching of the top and bottom cells which demonstrate a device that achieves high open-circuit voltage in the top solar cell. The GaAsP/SiGe solar cells have reached a measured efficiency of 20.6% under one sun concentration. Analysis of these results based on the product of the best parameters shows efficiency potential of 26% under one sun, 30.8% at 20× and 35.1% at 400×.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering, UNSW Australia (The University of New South Wales), Sydney, 2052, Australia

    Anastasia H. Soeriyadi, Brianna Conrad, Xin Zhao, Dun Li, Li Wang, Ivan Perez-Wurfl & Allen Barnett

  2. AmberWave Inc., Salem, NH, 03079, USA

    Anthony Lochtefeld

  3. SolAero Technologies Corp, Albuquerque, NM, 87123, USA

    Andrew Gerger

Authors
  1. Anastasia H. Soeriyadi
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  2. Brianna Conrad
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  3. Xin Zhao
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  4. Dun Li
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  5. Li Wang
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  6. Anthony Lochtefeld
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  7. Andrew Gerger
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  8. Ivan Perez-Wurfl
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  9. Allen Barnett
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Soeriyadi, A.H., Conrad, B., Zhao, X. et al. Increased Spectrum Utilization with GaAsP/SiGe Solar Cells Grown on Silicon Substrates. MRS Advances 1, 2901–2906 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1557/adv.2016.354

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/adv.2016.354

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