Numerical Investigation of High-Efficiency InGaN-Based Multijunction Solar Cell

• Published in: IEEE transactions on electron devices Vol. 60; no. 12; pp. 4140 - 4145
• Main Authors: CHANG, Jih-Yuan, YEN, Shih-Hsun, CHANG, Yi-An, LIOU, Bo-Ting, KUO, Yen-Kuang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 01.12.2013; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Electronics; Energy; Exact sciences and technology; Gallium nitride; Indium; Lighting; Natural energy; Nitrogen compounds; Optoelectronic devices; Photonic band gap; Photovoltaic cells; Photovoltaic conversion; Photovoltaic systems; polarization; Semiconductor electronics. Microelectronics. Optoelectronics. Solid state devices; Solar cells. Photoelectrochemical cells; Solar energy; Ternary compound; Performance evaluation; Electric potential; Potential barrier; Conversion rate; Nitrogen compounds; Fill factor; Gallium nitride; Optimization; Photovoltaic cell; Degradation; Electrical polarization; Optoelectronic device; Illumination; Indium nitride; polarization; Cost efficiency analysis; Damaging; Cell structure; Short circuit currents; Multijunction structure; III-V compound; Open circuit voltage; Solar cell; Crystalline material; photovoltaic cells; Polarization potential; Electric field
• ISSN: 0018-9383; 1557-9646
• DOI: 10.1109/TED.2013.2285573

A four-junction InGaN-based multijunction solar cell structure is proposed theoretically. The simulation results show that, with the use of appropriately designed compositional grading layers, the performance of InGaN-based multijunction solar cell can be maintained without the cost in performance degradation caused by the polarization-induced electric field and the potential barriers resulting from the heterointerfaces. After the optimization in thicknesses for current matching, a high conversion efficiency of 46.45% can be achieved under 1000-sun AM1.5D illumination, in which the short-circuit current density, open-circuit voltage, and fill factor are 12.2×10 3 mA/cm 2 , 4.18 V, and 0.77, respectively. The simulation results suggest that, in addition to the detrimental effects caused by the built-in electric polarization and potential barriers, the issue of crystalline quality is another critical factor influencing the performance of multijunction solar cells.