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Carrier-tunneling-induced photovoltaic effect of InAs/GaAs quantum-dot solar cells

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Abstract

This study reports the observation of the carrier-tunneling-induced photovoltaic (PV) effect in an InAs/GaAs quantum-dot solar cell (QDSC). The illuminated current-voltage (J-V) characteristics and the applied-bias-dependent electroreflectance (ER) were measured at 12 K by using an excitation laser with a wavelength of 975 nm (1.27 eV), which excites only the quantum-dot (QD) states below the GaAs band gap. The J-V results showed a peculiar current curve in the reverse bias region caused by carrier tunneling. The ER results showed that the junction electric field (F) decreased with increasing intensity of the excitation laser (I ex ) at different applied-bias-voltages (V a ) due to the tunneling-induced PV effect. The PV effect was enhanced by improved tunneling with increasing reverse bias voltage. We also evaluated the tunneling carrier density (σ pv ) as a function of V a in the QDSC.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan, 38541, Korea

    Seung Hyun Lee & Jong Su Kim

  2. Division of Convergence Technology, Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science, Daejeon, 34113, Korea

    Sang Jun Lee

Authors
  1. Seung Hyun Lee
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  2. Jong Su Kim
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  3. Sang Jun Lee
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Correspondence to Jong Su Kim.

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Lee, S.H., Kim, J.S. & Lee, S.J. Carrier-tunneling-induced photovoltaic effect of InAs/GaAs quantum-dot solar cells. Journal of the Korean Physical Society 69, 566–572 (2016). https://doi.org/10.3938/jkps.69.566

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