TY - JOUR
T1 - Indium phosphide based solar cell using ultra-thin ZnO as an electron selective layer
AU - Raj, Vidur
AU - Dos Santos, Tamara Sibele
AU - Rougieux, Fiacre
AU - Vora, Kaushal
AU - Lysevych, Mykhaylo
AU - Fu, Lan
AU - Mokkapati, Sudha
AU - Tan, Hark Hoe
AU - Jagadish, Chennupati
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 IOP Publishing Ltd.
PY - 2018/8/21
Y1 - 2018/8/21
N2 - According to the Shockley-Queisser limit, the maximum achievable efficiency for a single junction solar cell is ∼33.2% which corresponds to a bandgap (E g) of 1.35 eV (InP). However, the maximum reported efficiency for InP solar cells remain at 24.2% ± 0.5%, that is >25% below the standard Shockley-Queisser limit. Through a wide range of simulations, we propose a new device structure, ITO/ ZnO/i-InP/p+ InP (p-i-ZnO-ITO) which might be able to fill this efficiency gap. Our simulation shows that the use of a thin ZnO layer improves passivation of the underlying i-InP layer and provides electron selectivity leading to significantly higher efficiency when compared to their n+/i/p+ homojunction counterpart. As a proof-of-concept, we fabricated ITO/ZnO/i-InP solar cell on a p+ InP substrate and achieved an open-circuit voltage (V oc) and efficiency as high as 819 mV and 18.12%, respectively, along with ∼90% internal quantum efficiency. The entire device fabrication process consists of four simple steps which are highly controllable and reproducible. This work lays the foundation for a new generation of thin film InP solar cells based solely on carrier selective heterojunctions without the requirement of extrinsic doping and can be particularly useful when p- and n-doping are challenging as in the case of III-V nanostructures.
AB - According to the Shockley-Queisser limit, the maximum achievable efficiency for a single junction solar cell is ∼33.2% which corresponds to a bandgap (E g) of 1.35 eV (InP). However, the maximum reported efficiency for InP solar cells remain at 24.2% ± 0.5%, that is >25% below the standard Shockley-Queisser limit. Through a wide range of simulations, we propose a new device structure, ITO/ ZnO/i-InP/p+ InP (p-i-ZnO-ITO) which might be able to fill this efficiency gap. Our simulation shows that the use of a thin ZnO layer improves passivation of the underlying i-InP layer and provides electron selectivity leading to significantly higher efficiency when compared to their n+/i/p+ homojunction counterpart. As a proof-of-concept, we fabricated ITO/ZnO/i-InP solar cell on a p+ InP substrate and achieved an open-circuit voltage (V oc) and efficiency as high as 819 mV and 18.12%, respectively, along with ∼90% internal quantum efficiency. The entire device fabrication process consists of four simple steps which are highly controllable and reproducible. This work lays the foundation for a new generation of thin film InP solar cells based solely on carrier selective heterojunctions without the requirement of extrinsic doping and can be particularly useful when p- and n-doping are challenging as in the case of III-V nanostructures.
KW - IIIV solar cells
KW - SCAPS-1D simulation
KW - ZnO/InP interface
KW - electron selective layer
KW - heterojunction solar cells
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85053105008&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1088/1361-6463/aad7e3
DO - 10.1088/1361-6463/aad7e3
M3 - Article
SN - 0022-3727
VL - 51
JO - Journal Physics D: Applied Physics
JF - Journal Physics D: Applied Physics
IS - 39
M1 - 395301
ER -