TY - JOUR
T1 - Improving the performance of GaInP solar cells through rapid thermal annealing and delta doping
AU - Sun, Yukun
AU - Li, Brian D.
AU - Hool, Ryan D.
AU - Fan, Shizhao
AU - Kim, Mijung
AU - Lee, Minjoo Larry
N1 - Funding Information:
We gratefully acknowledge funding from NSF (Grants No. 1736181 and 1810265). R.D.H. and B.D.L were supported by NASA Space Technology Research Fellowships (Grants No. 80NSSC18K1171 and 80NSSC19K1174). This research was carried out in part in the Materials Research Laboratory Central Research Facilities, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Funding Information:
We gratefully acknowledge funding from NSF (Grants No. 1736181 and 1810265 ). R.D.H. and B.D.L were supported by NASA Space Technology Research Fellowships (Grants No. 80NSSC18K1171 and 80NSSC19K1174 ). This research was carried out in part in the Materials Research Laboratory Central Research Facilities, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2022/7/1
Y1 - 2022/7/1
N2 - We show that the effect of rapid thermal annealing (RTA) on carrier lifetime in GaInP grown by molecular beam epitaxy depends strongly on both doping type and density, and that these disparities must be accounted for to realize high-performance GaInP solar cells. Although the photoluminescence intensity and lifetime of lightly doped p- and n-GaInP improved greatly with RTA, heavily doped n+-GaInP showed sharp degradation upon RTA, preventing the realization of GaInP front-junction solar cells with low emitter sheet resistance. Since a low series resistance is important to achieve high fill factor (FF), we designed a front-junction cell utilizing a thin, lightly doped n-type emitter with delta doping to enhance conductivity, attaining an open-circuit voltage (VOC) of 1.40 V and FF of 86%. We then designed rear-heterojunction solar cells to further leverage the relatively long lifetime of lightly n-doped GaInP (∼19 ns). With the help of delta doping in the n-AlInP window to improve surface passivation, we attained a VOC of 1.42 V, similar to cells grown by metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy.
AB - We show that the effect of rapid thermal annealing (RTA) on carrier lifetime in GaInP grown by molecular beam epitaxy depends strongly on both doping type and density, and that these disparities must be accounted for to realize high-performance GaInP solar cells. Although the photoluminescence intensity and lifetime of lightly doped p- and n-GaInP improved greatly with RTA, heavily doped n+-GaInP showed sharp degradation upon RTA, preventing the realization of GaInP front-junction solar cells with low emitter sheet resistance. Since a low series resistance is important to achieve high fill factor (FF), we designed a front-junction cell utilizing a thin, lightly doped n-type emitter with delta doping to enhance conductivity, attaining an open-circuit voltage (VOC) of 1.40 V and FF of 86%. We then designed rear-heterojunction solar cells to further leverage the relatively long lifetime of lightly n-doped GaInP (∼19 ns). With the help of delta doping in the n-AlInP window to improve surface passivation, we attained a VOC of 1.42 V, similar to cells grown by metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.solmat.2022.111725
DO - 10.1016/j.solmat.2022.111725
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85128461645
VL - 241
JO - Solar Cells
JF - Solar Cells
SN - 0927-0248
M1 - 111725
ER -