Proposal for realizing high-efficiency III-nitride semiconductor tandem solar cells with InN/GaN superstructure magic alloys fabricated at raised temperature (SMART)

Kazuhide Kusakabe; Akihiko Yoshikawa

doi:10.1117/12.2042121

8 March 2014 Proposal for realizing high-efficiency III-nitride semiconductor tandem solar cells with InN/GaN superstructure magic alloys fabricated at raised temperature (SMART)

Kazuhide Kusakabe, Akihiko Yoshikawa

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 8986, Gallium Nitride Materials and Devices IX; 89861B (2014) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2042121
Event: SPIE OPTO, 2014, San Francisco, California, United States

Abstract

We propose a plausible and realistic idea for realizing high-efficiency III-nitride semiconductor tandem solar cells which utilize nearly entire AM-1.5 solar spectrum conversion under a subcell photocurrent matching rule. For the sake of drastic improvement/suppression of pn-junction leakage current, each subcell in the proposed tandem solar cells is composed of superstructure InN/GaN magic alloys, i.e. coherently grown (InN)_m/(GaN)_n short-period superlattices with simple integer pairs of (m, n) ≤ 4 in monolayers, which solve lattice-mismatch and immiscible problems in a conventional InGaN ternary alloy system. The InN/GaN magic alloys are further applicable to band engineering that provides potential wells for a thermal/photo sensitization effect and graded-bandgap structures for efficient carrier collection under the same (m, n) ratio alloys or keeping the coherent structure. Theoretical maximum conversion efficiency is 51% (58% under 250-suns concentration) for a 4-tandem cell configuration.

Citation Download Citation

Kazuhide Kusakabe and Akihiko Yoshikawa "Proposal for realizing high-efficiency III-nitride semiconductor tandem solar cells with InN/GaN superstructure magic alloys fabricated at raised temperature (SMART)", Proc. SPIE 8986, Gallium Nitride Materials and Devices IX, 89861B (8 March 2014); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2042121

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