III-Nitride/Si Tandem Solar Cell for High Spectral Response: Key Attributes of Auto-tunneling Mechanisms
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ORIGINAL PAPER
III-Nitride/Si Tandem Solar Cell for High Spectral Response: Key Attributes of Auto-tunneling Mechanisms N. Laxmi1 · S. Routray2
· K. P. Pradhan1
Received: 9 August 2019 / Accepted: 25 November 2019 © Springer Nature B.V. 2019
Abstract The key attributes of double hetero junction tandem solar cell based on III-Nitride alloys and silicon is investigated thoroughly. GaN/InGaN/GaN based tandem solar cells are predicting impressive efficiency, however due to its high cost; it is far from immediate implementation. Hence, an attempt is made to realize GaN/InGaN on crystalline silicon(c-Si) substrate that results in high spectral efficiency and cost effectiveness. The proposed multi-junction tandem solar cell consists of a GaN layer, intrinsic-Inx Ga1−x N (i-InGaN), tandem Inx Ga1−x N (t-InGaN) upon crystalline p-silicon and n-silicon layers. Energy band diagrams, current-voltage curve, power graph, electric field and potential graphs are explored using TCAD tool. Additionally, key parameters such as ’In’ content, thickness of layers, absorption coefficients, polarization charges are optimized. A remarkable conversion efficiency of 25.6% and 26.1% are achieved with & without polarization effect, respectively and became a potential candidate for next-generation photovoltaics applications. Keywords InGaN · Tunnel · Tandem · Solar cell
1 Introduction Looking towards the surging demand of renewable source of energy, compound materials are having high potential for solar cell applications. Single junction Si solar cell has highest achievable efficiency of 25% under AM1.5 spectrum [1]. The Efficiency of silicon solar cell is low [2], as it has low light absorption coefficient because of indirect band structure [3]. Additionally, single junction solar cell has limitation of absorption of photons from solar spectrum due to limited bandgap. Hence multijunction solar cell is the field of interest among the research communities. Tandem S. Routray
[email protected] N. Laxmi [email protected] K. P. Pradhan [email protected] 1
Department of Electronics, Communication Engineering, Indian Institute of Information Technology, Design and Manufacturing, Kancheepuram, 600127, India
2
Department of Electronics, Communication Engineering, SRM University, Kattankulathur, Chennai, 603203, India
solar cells made of GaInP/GaAs achieved a maximum power conversion efficiency of 31.6% [4]. However, GaAs is expensive, has complex manufacturing process and cannot be used for terrestrial applications. Previously, King et al. reported an efficiency of 40% from the solar cell made of GaInP/GaInAs/Ge [5]. However, because of high lattice mismatch and crystal dislocations, additional energy levels introduces in bandgap, which gradually reduces the performance of the solar cell in bulk fabrication. In general, graded buffer layer is needed to accommodate this misfit, complicating the process and reducing its commercial efficiency [6]. In other hand, all types of multi-junction solar cell is equipped with lattice match
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