1 cm/spl times/1 cm GaAs/AlGaAs MQW solar cells under one sun and concentrated sunlight

• Published in: Conference Record of the Twenty-Eighth IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference - 2000 (Cat. No.00CH37036) pp. 1142 - 1145
• Main Authors: Aperathitis, E., Hatzopoulos, Z., Kayambaki, M., Foukaraki, V., Ruzinsky, M., Saly, V., Sirotny, P., Varonides, A.C., Panayotatos, P.
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 2000
• Subjects: Diodes; Fabrication; Gallium arsenide; Lighting; Photoconductivity; Photovoltaic cells; Quantum well devices; Sun; Temperature dependence; Tunneling
• ISBN: 9780780357723; 0780357728
• ISSN: 0160-8371
• DOI: 10.1109/PVSC.2000.916089

GaAs/AlGaAs multiple quantum well (MQW) solar cells, with different ratios of well to barrier number and thickness, have been examined with temperature, between -10 and 100/spl deg/C, and under AM1.5 illumination and 5/spl times/ concentration conditions. The ideality factor of the diodes in the dark improved with temperature. Depending on the thickness of the wells and the barriers, the tunneling component of photocurrent dominated at low temperatures whereas thermionic currents were the dominant components at elevated temperatures or high illumination conditions. The fabrication of 1 cm/spl times/1 cm MQW solar cell, with the optimum QW geometry (number of wells and barriers thickness) exhibited J/sub sc/=56.8 mA/cm/sup 2/ and V/sub oc/=1.041 V at 5/spl times/ concentration when compared to J/sub sc/=10.2 mA/cm/sup 2/ and V/sub oc/=1.009 V at AM1.5 illumination conditions.