Abstract
The paper is focused on the fundamental loss in the nongenerating (residual) part of multi-junction solar cells. A method for determining the current-voltage characteristic of the residual part of solar cells is suggested and substantiated. The method is a generalization of the technique applicable to single-junction solar photovoltaic converters. The imbalance of photogenerated currents and the luminescence coupling between subcells is taken into account, which makes it possible to apply the suggested method to multi-junction solar cells. The method is applied to single-junction (InGaP, GaAs, Ge) and triple-junction (InGaP/GaAs/Ge) solar cells. Two types of current-voltage characteristics I–V are revealed and empirical laws for these characteristics are found. The first type shows a monotonic superlinearity, J ∝ V n (n ≈ 1.3–1.4), and is due to spreading resistance. The second type is only observed for triple-junction solar cells and has the form of a double-exponential dependence with a sublinear initial portion, J ∝ [exp(V/E 1) − exp(−V/E 2)], with E 1 ≈ 0.35 V and E 2 ≈ 0.15–0.30 V. As a result, it is found that the charge transport in the residual part of multi-junction solar cells is limited not only by the spreading resistance, but also by other factors, e.g., by isotype heterointerfaces.
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Original Russian Text © M.A. Mintairov, V.V. Evstropov, N.A. Kalyuzhnyy, S.A. Mintairov, M.Z. Shvarts, N.Kh. Timoshina, R.A. Salii, V.M. Lantratov, 2014, published in Fizika i Tekhnika Poluprovodnikov, 2014, Vol. 48, No. 5, pp. 671–676.
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Mintairov, M.A., Evstropov, V.V., Kalyuzhnyy, N.A. et al. Subtractive method for obtaining the dark current-voltage characteristic and its types for the residual (nongenerating) part of a multi-junction solar cell. Semiconductors 48, 653–658 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1063782614050133
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S1063782614050133