ADVANCES IN STRAIN BALANCED QUANTUM WELL TANDEM SOLAR CELLS A. Ioannides1, T.N.D. Tibbits1, J. P. Connolly2, D. B. Bushnell3, K. W. J. Barnham1, C.

Calder4, G.Hill4, J.S Roberts4, G.Smekens5, J. Van Begin5 1 Experimental Solid State Physics, Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College London, SW7 2BW, UK 2 LECA (UMR 7575 CNRS), Ecole Nationale Suprieure de Chimie de Paris, 75005, Paris 3 International Rectifier Co. (GB) Ltd, Fairview Industrial Estate, Hurst Green, Oxted, Surrey, RH8 9BB, UK 4 EPSRC National Centre for III-V Technologies, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S1 3JD, U.K 5 Energies Nouvelles et Environnement, B-1150 Brussels, Belgium

ABSTRACT: The latest work in SB-QWSC tandem solar cells leading to higher efficiencies is presented in this paper. Having demonstrated the benefits of incorporating strain balanced multi-quantum well structures in InGaP/GaAs bottom cells further improvement has been implemented on the latest devices. Characterization at higher concentrations was made possible using an increased emitter doping in the tandem top cell. A new record efficiency was achieved of 30.7% at a concentration of 54 suns by the dual junction tandem SB-QWSC. Keywords: quantum well, dual junction, concentrator solar cell

INTRODUCTION

The best verified InGaP/GaAs monolithic tandem solar cell efficiency today under AM1.5d is 30.2% at 180x concentration [1]. The major limitation of InGaP/GaAs dual junction monolithic tandem solar cells is the photocurrent of the lower GaAs junction [2]. Incorporation of strain balanced multi-quantum well solar cell (SB-QWSC) structures in GaAs cells extends the absorption of the cell to the longer wavelengths thus enhancing the photocurrent generation [3]. If the increase in photocurrent overcompensates the drop in open circuit voltage then this results in a higher efficiency [4]. The beneficial effects of SB-QWSC incorporated in InGaP/GaAs on tandem efficiencies were initially demonstrated through modelling [5]. Other approaches include InGaP/InGaAs on lattice mismatched or metamorphic structures, which have achieved high efficiencies in triple junction cells [6]. However, in these devices there is always residual dislocation density, which is absent in the SB-QWSC [3]. Another approach is that of GaInAs dilute nitrides, but the poor material quality and the low photocurrent generation are detrimental [7]. We have presented the first promising results of a SB-QWSC with the fabrication of devices that have achieved an efficiency of 27.2% under 22x concentration of AM1.5g [8]. These devices though, showed poor performance under higher concentrations due to insufficient emitter doping. In this paper the latest devices grown are presented for InGaP/GaAs dual junction monolithic solar cells featuring a SB-QWSC in the GaAs junction. 2 SB-QWSC TANDEMS OVERVIEW

Figure 1: Optimum bandgap combinations contour plot for AM1.5g spectrum. Intersecting line depicts InGaP/GaAs tandem cell]. The strain balancing technique works in the following way: The InGaAs quantum wells create a compressive strain in the bulk GaAs due to their smaller lattice constant. By surrounding the quantum well with appropriate GaAsP half-barriers of a larger lattice constant, tensile strain is provided. Therefore a halfbarrier/well/half-barrier structure has zero residual stress on bulk GaAs and no misfit dislocations are formed. Using this technique SB-QWSCs containing up to 65 quantum wells have been fabricated without the presence of misfit dislocations. Figure 2 depicts the lattice parameters of the unstrained material and the energy band diagram for the SB-QWSC. 3 DEVICE SUMMARY

The use of strained balanced quantum well structures lowers the effective band-gap of the bulk GaAs junction without the introduction of misfit dislocations. In addition, as the lattice constant of bulk GaAs is unchanged, the top cell composition can remain the same thus retaining the optimum band-gap for high collection efficiency as seen in Figure 1.

The bottom cells for the SB-QWSC devices were grown at the EPSRC National Centre for III-V Technologies in Sheffield using Metal Organic VapourPhase Epitaxy (MOVPE) on GaAs substrates. The top cell overgrowth along with the tunnel junctions was performed at Energies Nouvelles et Environment (ENE) in Belgium again by MOVPE. The final stages of device

current matched devices at higher current densities was undertaken.

3.2 Latest devices The latest device grown is TS151. This device has the same top cell structure as in the case of QT1812AD. The top cell emitter doping though has been increased for the purpose of characterizing the device at higher concentrations. The bottom cell of the two devices differs slightly as TS51 has quantum wells with lower Indium content. The equivalent control device for the TS151 is ENE1864. Figure 2: a) Unstrained lattice parameters of the materials and b) energy band diagram of a SB-QWSC [9]. processing were performed by the author at the facilities of the Centre for Integrated Photonics (CIP) in Ipswich. The control devices were grown on their entirety at ENE on Germanium substrates. The generic structure of the SB-QWSCs grown is depicted in Figure 3. All devices were processed as photodiodes, which facilitate the quantum efficiency measurements, fully metallized devices, for dark current measurements, and as concentrator devices. 5 RESULTS

5.1 Quantum Efficiency Measurements The quantum efficiencies were obtained using the light bias method as described in Ref. [8]. Figure 4 below depicts the measured external quantum efficiencies of the devices grown. The beneficial effects of the SB-QWSC are apparent in the bottom cell quantum efficiency of TS151 as compared to the ENE1864 control cell.

Figure 4: External quantum efficiencies of SB-QWSCs and control tandem cell. Figure 3: SB-QWSC tandem structure. The MQW denotes the multi-quantum well structure. 3.1 Previous devices The best previously grown device, QT1821AD exhibited a current matched tandem, which demonstrated an efficiency of 27.2% under 22x AM1.5g concentration [8]. The short circuit current density of the device matched at 132.8 A/m2. Due to a low top cell emitter doping however, the fill factor deteriorated rapidly at higher concentrations. The device growth was repeated with a higher emitter doping but degradation of the top cell hindered the device from achieving higher efficiency. In previous attempts a SB-QWSC has already been fabricated with a high quality bottom cell with a calculated short current density of 148.4 A/m2 under Am1.5g spectrum. Unfortunately this cell was also limited by a low QE top cell, which diminished the overall tandem cell efficiency. For this reason a continuous effort to improve the top cell and produce 5.2 Short circuit current density calculations From the measured external quantum efficiencies the expected short circuit current density for each junction was calculated under AM1.5g spectrum. These are depicted in Table I. Table I: Summary of grown devices along with calculated short circuit current densities under AM1.5g spectrum. The exciton peak of each SB-QWSC is also shown. Exciton Jsc, A/m2 peak (nm) Device Top Cell Bottom Cell QT1821AD 132.8 133.7 932 TS151 126.8 127.6 922 ENE1864 (control 132.7 111.3 N/A cell)

Both SB-QWSC tandem are current matched devices due to the additional current produced in the bottom cell. The top cell of the control cell is however producing more current than TS151, its SB-QWSC counterpart. This can be attributed to the fact the SB-QWSC is grown in a twostage growth process. The control cell growth is only interrupted for the insertion of the SB-QWSC in the reactor. 5.3 Quantum efficiency modelling A model of the quantum efficiencies was created using SOL, a 1-d drift diffusion model developed at Imperial. The model fits the experimental data within the limits of the experimental error (5%). A sample fit is depicted in Figure 5 below.

control and the TS151 SB-QWSC tandem. The modelled short circuit current for each junction and device are also shown in Table IV. Table III: Measured short circuit currents Concentration (No. of suns) 54 108 212 515 TS151SB-QWSC ENE1864 control Short circuit current (mA) 8.3 8.5 16.6 17.0 32.7 33.6 80.4 82.1

Table IV: Modelled short circuit currents TS151SB-QWSC Concentration ENE1864 control Short circuit current (mA) Top Bot. Top Bot. cell cell cell cell 6.9 6.9 7.2 6.0 13.7 13.8 14.3 12.0 26.9 27.1 28.1 23.6 65.3 65.7 68.3 57.3

54 108 212 515

Figure 5: TS151 experimental and modeled quantum efficiencies. The window layer of the top cell is not accurately modelled as there are insufficient physical data for the structure used and was instead modelled as an AlGaAs layer. The lower than expected quantum efficiency in the short wavelengths might be attributed to the high emitter doping or the window layer. 5.3 Efficiency measurements under concentration The devices were characterized under a Xenon light source solar simulator under various concentrations. The best results are summarized in Table II. Table II: Peak efficiencies under concentration Fill No. of Efficiency Device Factor (%) suns (%) QT1821AD 80.4 27.2 22 TS151 ENE1864 (control cell) 54 54 81.4 81.9 30.6 31.7

The ENE1864 control cell has higher short circuit currents under all concentrations compared to the TS151 SB-QWSC. This and taking into account the modelled short circuit currents led us to two possible scenarios. The Xenon light solar simulator spectrum is such that both devices are current limited by the top cell during characterization. This can occur if the spectrum is redrich. The other possibility is that the tunnel junction on the SB-QWSC again due to the break in the growth process. 6 CONCLUSIONS

The latest SB-QWSC tandems cells fabricated have reached record efficiencies of 30.6%. This is the highest efficiency so far for a solar cell with an incorporated nanostructure enhancing the efficiency. It has been demonstrated that with the insertion of SB-QWSC in tandem configurations the current matching condition for optimum power can be achieved. The reasons why the control cell has achieved a higher efficiency are still under investigation. Higher quality SB-QW bottom cells have already been grown with higher short current densities and which also incorporate DBR surface, which enhance the photocurrent generation further. The latest challenge is finding a lattice matched top cell with enough photocurrent to match the bottom SB-QWSC. Maybe in the near future SB-QWSC will provide the answer to this as well.

Device TS151 achieved a new record efficiency for SBQWSC tandem solar cell of 30.6% under 54x concentration. The new design had enhanced performance under high concentration in comparison to Qt1821AD. The control device ENE1864 however, achieved an efficiency of 31.7% at a concentration of 54 suns. Table III compares the measured short circuit currents measured under concentration between the ENE1864

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