Investigation of Carrier Recombination Dynamics of InGaP/InGaAsP Multiple Quantum Wells for Solar Cells via Photoluminescence

• Published in: IEEE journal of photovoltaics Vol. 7; no. 3; pp. 817 - 821
• Main Authors: Kan-Hua Lee, Barnham, Keith W. J., Roberts, John S., Alonso-Alvarez, Diego, Hylton, N. P., Fuhrer, Markus, Ekins-Daukes, Nicholas J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Piscataway IEEE 01-05-2017; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Carrier recombination; Conduction bands; Confinement; Emission analysis; Gallium indium arsenide phosphide; Gallium indium phosphide; Heterostructures; III-V semiconductor materials; Multi Quantum Wells; Photoluminescence; Photovoltaic cells; Quantum well devices; quantum wells; Radiative recombination; Solar cells; Temperature control; Temperature measurement; Valence band
• ISSN: 2156-3381; 2156-3403
• DOI: 10.1109/JPHOTOV.2017.2660759

The carrier recombination dynamics of InGaP/InGaAsP quantum wells is reported for the first time. By studying the photoluminescence (PL) and time-resolved PL decay of InGaP/InGaAsP multiple-quantum-well (MQW) heterostructure samples, it is demonstrated that InGaP/InGaAsP MQWs have very low nonradiative recombination rate and high radiative efficiency compared with the control InGaP sample. Along with the analyses of PL emission spectrum and external quantum efficiencies, it suggests that this is due to small confinement potentials in the conduction band but high confinement potentials in the valence band. These results explain several features found in InGaP/InGaAsP MQW solar cells previously.