Stephen Polly

Nanostructured photovoltaics for space power

Quantum dot enhanced solar cells have been evaluated both theoretically and experimentally. A detailed balance simulation of InAs quantum dot (QD) enhanced solar cells has been performed. A 14% (absolute) efficiency improvement has been predicted if the middle junction of a state-of-the-art space multi-junction III-V solar cell can be bandgap engineered using QDs. Experimental results for a GaAs middle junction enhanced with InAs QDs have shown an 8% increase in short circuit current compared to a baseline device. The current enhancement per layer of QD was extracted from device spectral response (0.017 mA per QD layer). This value was used to estimate the efficiency of multi-junction solar cells with up to 200 layers of QDs added to the middle current-limiting junction. In addition, the radiation tolerance of QD cells, key to operation of these cells in space environments, shows improved characteristics. Open circuit voltage (VOC) in QD devices was more resilient to both alpha and proton displacement damage, resulting in a 10X reduction in the rate of VOC degradation.

Analyzing carrier escape mechanisms in InAs/GaAs quantum dot p-i-n junction photovoltaic cells

Intermediate band solar cells (IBSCs) are third-generation photovoltaic (PV) devices that can harvest sub-bandgap photons normally not absorbed in a single-junction solar cell. Despite the large increase in total solar energy conversion efficiency predicted for IBSC devices, substantial challenges remain to realizing these efficiency gains in practical devices. We evaluate carrier escape mechanisms in an InAs/GaAs quantum dot intermediate band p-i-n junction PV device using photocurrent measurements under sub-bandgap illumination. We show that sub-bandgap photons generate photocurrent through a two-photon absorption process, but that carrier trapping and retrapping limit the overall photocurrent. The results identify a key obstacle that must be overcome in order to realize intermediate band devices that outperform single junction photovoltaic cells.

Short circuit current enhancement of GaAs solar cells using strain compensated InAs quantum dots

Tensile strain compensation (SC) layers were introduced into GaAs p-i-n solar cells grown with a five-stack of InAs quantum dots (QDs) within the i-region. The effects of strain within stacked layers of InAs quantum dots (QDs) were investigated using high resolution x-ray diffraction (HRXRD). Analysis of the HRXRD data shows that the average lattice strain is minimized for the optimal SC thickness. One sun air mass zero illuminated current-voltage curves show that SC results in improved conversion efficiency and reduced dark current when compared to uncompensated devices. The strain compensated 5-layer QD solar cell shows a 0.9 mA/cm2 increase in short circuit current compared to a baseline GaAs cell. Quantum efficiency measurements show this additional current results from photo-generated carriers within the quantum confined material.

Delta-Doping Effects on Quantum-Dot Solar Cells

The effects of delta-doping InAs quantum-dot (QD)-enhanced GaAs solar cells were studied both through modeling and device experimentation. Delta doping of two, four, and eight electrons per QD, as well as nine holes per QD, was used in this study. It was observed that QD doping reduced Shockley-Read-Hallrecombination in the QDs, which results in a reduced dark current and an improved open-circuit voltage over undoped QD devices. A voltage recovery of 121 mV was observed for the eight-electron sample compared with the undoped sample. QD doping had no positive effects on subbandgap photon collection but actually degraded bulk and QD response as doping levels were increased by limiting minority carrier collection through the QD region. Despite this, an absolute AM0 efficiency improvement of 1.41% was observed for the four-electron sample over the undoped QD device while maintaining a current enhancement.

Effect of quantum dot position and background doping on the performance of quantum dot enhanced GaAs solar cells

The effect of the position of InAs quantum dots (QD) within the intrinsic region of pin-GaAs solar cells is reported. Simulations suggest placing the QDs in regions of reduced recombination enables a recovery of open-circuit voltage (VOC). Devices with the QDs placed in the center and near the doped regions of a pin-GaAs solar cell were experimentally investigated. While the VOC of the emitter-shifted device was degraded, the center and base-shifted devices exhibited VOC comparable to the baseline structure. This asymmetry is attributed to background doping which modifies the recombination profile and must be considered when optimizing QD placement.

Characterization of quantum dot enhanced solar cells for concentrator photovoltaics

The addition of quantum dots (QDs) or quantum wells (QW) to a solar cell allows one to extend the absorption spectrum of the solar cell to match spectral conditions under concentration. In this paper the effect of bandgap tuning using quantum dots is investigated. P-i-n GaAs concentrator solar cells, both with and without InAs QD superlattice (SL) inserted into the i-region, were fabricated. In order to investigate effects of increased InAs QD layers, between 5 and 20 stacked InAs QDs were grown. The 20 layer stack QD tuned cell showed an 11% improvement in JSC compared to the baseline from concentrations of 2–450 suns. The increased Jsc of the QD devices was shown to be a direct result of photo-generated current contributed by the QDs. The 20X QD cell gave a 1% absolute efficiency enhancement, compared to a baseline solar cell, at 400 sun intensity, showing potential for QD spectral tuning under solar concentration.

Strain Effects on Radiation Tolerance of Triple-Junction Solar Cells With InAs Quantum Dots in the GaAs Junction

A comparison of quantum dot (QD) triple-junction solar cells (TJSCs) with the QD superlattice under tensile strain are compared with those under compressive strain and baseline devices to examine the effects of strain induced by the InAs QD layers in the middle junction. Theoretical results show samples with tensile-strained InAs QDs have lower defect formation energy while compressive-strained QDs have the greatest. Experimentally, it is found that tensile strain leads to degradation of i-region material at values of -706 ppm. Irradiating with 1-MeV electrons, TJSCs with tensile strain exhibit a faster degradation in Isc of the QD samples and slower degradation in Voc but overall faster degradation in efficiency compared with baseline TJSCs, regardless of the magnitude of tensile strain. Compressively strained QD TJSCs have similar degradation in Isc and slower degradation in Voc compared with baseline TJSCs. From this study, it is determined that a slightly compressive strain in the QD superlattice allows for the best performance pre- and postirradiation for QD TJSCs based upon AM0 IV and quantum efficiency measurements and analysis. Fabricating devices with improvements determined from samples with varying strain leads to QD TJSCs with better radiation tolerance in terms of power output for 5, 10, 15, and 20 layers of QDs.

Investigation of quantum dot enhanced triple junction solar cells

InAs quantum dots have been incorporated into the middle junction of an InGaP/(In)GaAs/Ge triple junction solar cell (TJSC) on four inch wafers, in aims of band gap engineering a high efficiency solar cell to even higher limits. Results of QD growth on 4” diameter Ge templates gave densities near 1×1011 cm−3 and QD height between 2–5 nm. Arrays of 10 layers of InAs QDs have been grown between the base and emitter in the middle cell of a full triple junction solar cell. Control triple junction cells that received growth interrupts without QD growth showed similar results (within 5 mV open circuit voltage) to standard triple junction cells without an interrupt. Integrated current of the (In)GaAs junction with 10 layers of strain balanced InAs QD layers shows a gain of 0.37 mA/cm2 beyond the band edge. One sun AM0 current-voltage measurements of QD TJSC show an efficiency of 26.9% with a Voc of 2.57 V.

New Nanostructured Materials for Efficient Photon Upconversion

Although methods for harvesting subbandgap solar photons have been demonstrated, present approaches still face substantial challenges. We evaluate carrier escape mechanisms in an InAs/GaAs quantum dot (QD) intermediate band photovoltaic (PV) device using photocurrent measurements under subbandgap illumination. We show that subbandgap photons can generate photocurrent through a two-photon absorption process, but that carrier trapping and retrapping limit the overall photocurrent regardless of whether the dominant carrier escape mechanism is optical, tunneling, or thermal. We introduce a new design for an InAs QD-based nanostructured material that can efficiently upconvert two low-energy photons into one high-energy photon. Efficiency is enhanced by intentionally sacrificing a small amount of photon energy to minimize radiative and nonradiative loss. Upconversion PV devices based on this approach separate the absorption of subbandgap photons from the current-harvesting junction, circumventing the carrier-trapping problems.

Effects of electric field on thermal and tunneling carrier escape in InAs/GaAs quantum dot solar cells

The effects of electric field on carrier escape in InAs/GaAs quantum dots embedded in a p-i-n solar cell structures have been studied by quantum efficiency. Via band structure simulation, effective barrier height of carriers inside QDs is reduced with increasing local electric field, so tunneling and thermal escape are enhanced. At 300K, when electric field intensity is below 40kV/cm, thermal escape is dominant in all confined states in QDs; when electric field intensity is above 40kV/cm, tunneling is dominant in shallow confined states and thermal escape is dominant in the ground state of QDs.