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(a) Jsc(ideal) as a function of MgF2 and ITO thickness. (b) Effect of InP thickness on Jsc(ideal) in the presence of an optimum anti-reflective coating and metal back reflector.
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Most recently, III–V based ultrathin solar cells have attracted considerable attention for their inherent advantages, such as increased tolerance to defect recombination, efficient charge carrier separation, photon recycling, flexibility, and reduced material consumption. However, so far, almost all reported devices make use of conventional doped p...
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... the optimized anti-reflective coating, reflection from the front of the cell decreases below 10% for most of the wavelength regime, leading to a Jsc(ideal) greater than 28 mA/cm 2 for InP thickness as low as 280 nm. Figure 2(a) shows the effect of the thickness of MgF2 and ITO on the Jsc(ideal) of the proposed solar cell when the thickness of InP is fixed at 280 nm. ...
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... next calculate the maximum Jsc that can be obtained from InP thin film of different thicknesses. Figure 2(b) shows the effect of InP thickness on the Jsc(ideal) of the solar cell in the presence of an optimum anti-reflective coating and a metal back reflector. The Jsc(ideal) shows an oscillatory behavior depending on the thickness of InP because of optical resonance and interference effects, consistent with previously reported Jsc behavior for thin film heterojunction solar cells [54][55][56]. ...
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Previously, an Al0.52In0.48P p+-i-n+ spectroscopic photon counting X-ray photodiode with 2μm thick i layer (200μm diameter) was shown to suffer from energy-dependent incomplete charge collection noise (Lioliou et al., 2019). Subsequent measurements on a larger (400μm diameter) Al0.52In0.48P p+-i-n+ photodiode (reported here) revealed the presence o...
Citations
... Over the years, researchers have explored alternative structures to the costly p + /n or n + /p InP homojunction. These alternatives include n-ITO/p-InP [10][11][12][13], n-CdS/p-InP [14][15][16], and other heterojunctions that utilize carrier selective contacts such as TiO2 [17] and ZnO [18,19]. Additionally, InP-based Schottky junctions that consist of metal-semiconductor (MS) and metal-intermediate layer-semiconductor (MIS) structures have also been investigated [20][21][22]. ...
This paper uses numerical modeling to describe the design and comprehensive analysis of cost-effective MXene/n-InP Schottky barrier solar cells. The proposed design utilizes Ti3C2Tx thin film, a 2D solution-processible MXene material, as a Schottky transparent conductive electrode (TCE). The simulation results suggest that these devices can achieve power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) exceeding 20% in metal–semiconductor (MS) and metal–interlayer–semiconductor (MIS) structures. Combining the proposed structures with low-cost InP growth methods can reduce the gap between InP and other terrestrial market technologies. This is useful for specific applications that require lightweight and radiation-hard solar photovoltaics.
... When an electron in the conduction band is transferred to the valence band, it emits a photon. The recombination of electrons and holes in this process is expressed as radiative recombination [31]. The efficiency spectra of the CTS solar cell depending on radiative recombination coefficient (Br (cm 3 /s)) is given in Figure 8a and efficiency remains almost constant between 10 -12 and 10 -8 cm 3 /s, it drops abruptly with 10 -8 cm 3 /s. ...
1% and 3% Cr doped CuO thin films have been deposited on soda lime glass by spin coating method and then their structural, morphological and optical properties have been investigated by operating X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Ultraviolet-Visible Spectroscopy (UV-Vis) techniques, respectively. XRD patterns of CuO:Cr (1%) and CuO:Cr (3%) thin films demonstrate characteristics of monoclinic CuO structure with a C2/c space group. The morphology of coated film plays an important role in analyzing some optoelectronic properties. 1% Cr doped CuO thin film absorbs more photons compared to 3% Cr doped CuO in Vis and UV regions. The band gaps of 1% Cr and 3% Cr doped CuO thin films are to be 2.18 eV and 2.30 eV, respectively. The Mo/1% and 3% Cr doped CuO/n-ZnO/i-ZnO/AZO solar cell has modelled with SCAPS-1D simulation program. The photovoltaic (PV) parameters of solar cell deteriorated with some increase in the neutral defect density (N_t) value. As the shallow acceptor defect density (N_a) value is increased, J_SC is decreased, V_OC, FF and η are increased. PV performance of 1% Cr doped CuO solar cell were found to be better than that of 3% Cr doped CuO solar cell. The efficiency of 1% Cr doped CuO solar cell is increased with the use of SnO2 intermediate layer in 2 nm thickness at the heterojunction interface.
... Indium Phosphide (InP), a direct bandgap III-V semiconductor, is gaining attention in photovoltaic technologies for its exceptional electronic and optoelectronic properties [9,10]. The bandgap width of InP makes it suitable for single-junction solar cells, and its excellent radiation resistance further underscores its potential for space and terrestrial photovoltaic systems [11]. ...
... In this regard, many researchers have published reports on development and design of ultra-thin III-V SCs, where they have adopted the conventional planar design with a base (intrinsic) layer sandwiched between a heavily doped p + and n + regions to ensure efficient charge separation [9] [10]. Recently, Raj et al. and Liang et al. have reported ultra-thin InP and GaAs SCs respectively with active layer thickness of few hundred nanometers [11] [12]. The proposed devices have exhibited a PCE~20% with lower bulk recombination, good radiation resistance, high defect-tolerance, and efficient photon recycling. ...
... To tackle transmission (T(λ)) losses, metal back reflectors of silver (Ag), copper (Cu), and aluminium (Al) are incorporated on the rare end of the active layer [12]. Whereas, to counter reflection (R(λ)) losses from the top planar surface various techniques such as plasmonic nanoparticle reflectors [13], oxide/metal nanostructure arrays [14] [15], and dielectric antireflective coatings (ARCs) are implemented [11]. Amongst all methods, ARC of dielectric materials is simple and effective. ...
... Moreover, after certain point the penetration of incoming light in the active material becomes constant and nearly makes no change in photogeneration. The obtained results agrees well with previously reported works on thin-film SCs [11] [13]. Therefore, for further study we have fixed the thickness of GaAs layer at initial peak value of 500nm. ...
... III-V based thin-film SCs often perform much better than Si solar cells. III-V materials are slowly emerging as promising contenders for several high-efficiency applications if the limits of Si are taken into consideration [5]. GaAs and InP are examples of III-V materials that have excellent optoelectronic characteristics such as high absorption coefficient, mobility, and the ideal bandgap to absorb the bulk of the solar spectrum [6][7][8][9]. ...
... GaAs and InP are examples of III-V materials that have excellent optoelectronic characteristics such as high absorption coefficient, mobility, and the ideal bandgap to absorb the bulk of the solar spectrum [6][7][8][9]. Despite these advantageous characteristics, the commercial application of III-V materials-based SCs is constrained by the need for expensive substrates and high processing costs for the production of SCs [5,10]. To make highly efficient cost effective thin-film SC, extensive research is now being conducted on light trapping techniques such as the surface plasmon-enhanced absorption of SCs specifically silver (Ag) and gold (Au) metal nanoparticles (MNPs), which are often employed in plasmon PV due to the fact that their surface plasmon resonances frequencies are situated in the visible spectrum [11][12][13][14], textured surfaces [15], dielectric coatings [16], metallic gratings [17] etc. ...
III-V material-based ultrathin Solar Cells (SCs) garnered a great deal of interest due to their benefits such as efficient charge transport, recycling of photons, adaptability, and material usage but suffer from low optical absorption due to thicker active material. In order to increase the optical absorption in the ultra-thin SC, metal nanoparticles (MNPs) are employed that scatter the incident light in the absorber layer resulting in higher optical absorption with the reduced requirement of active material. The role of MNPs in the efficiency improvement of InP SCs has not yet been explored. Therefore, in this paper, we have investigated the impact of plasmonic MNPs of different materials such as gold (Au), silver (Ag) and aluminium (Al) placed on the top of ITO coated 280 nm ultra-thin InP SC with FDTD simulations, which employ the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) to increase the optical absorption by tuning the dimensions of the MNPs. The thickness of InP thin-film and an anti-reflective coating of ITO are optimized to achieve maximum absorption. In addition, the diameter and period of Au, Ag, and Al MNPs are also optimized to achieve higher optical Jsc, and results show that Au nanoparticle with diameter of 50 nm and period of 100 nm shows higher Jsc when compared to Ag and Al nanoparticles of optimized diameter. The device analysis shows the Au nanoparticles placed on the top surface of ITO coated InP ultrathin SC with a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 22.3% outperform the Ag NPs and Al NPs ITO coated InP ultrathin SC and ITO/InP ultrathin SC without MNPs.
... Main reason for fabricating ultra-thin GaAs solar cells [174,[176][177][178][179][180] is the cost reduction through lower absorber material consumption. The most successful technique is the epitaxial lift-off that gives the record efficiency of > 29%; however, the number of reuse of substrate is limited to 10, whereas germanium-on-nothing is a very attractive alternate technique, though reaching only 14.4% efficiency so far [178]. ...
... The most successful technique is the epitaxial lift-off that gives the record efficiency of > 29%; however, the number of reuse of substrate is limited to 10, whereas germanium-on-nothing is a very attractive alternate technique, though reaching only 14.4% efficiency so far [178]. Study on an alternate III-V compound layer InP showed that even for a 280 nm absorber layer most of the I-V parameters near to S-Q limit can be achieved, except the current density which is 5 mA/cm 2 less than the S-Q limit [179]. This can be mitigated by proper light trapping technique. ...
An important challenge for lowering the cost of “solar energy” is minimising the required usage of the “active solar absorber material.” Development of ultra-thin solar cells is of paramount importance in ultimate cost reduction of solar cells—without compromising if not increasing, the efficiency of solar cells. Research in ultra-thin solar cells is fast-gaining ground. It was pointed out that basing on Thomas–Reiche–Kuhn sum rule, the amount of material required to achieve maximum optical absorption due to incident light (in the spectral region of interest for solar cells) may well be around 10 nm thick. However, it is important to devise appropriate light manipulation mechanism in conjunction with the semiconductor absorber layer of the solar cells. Plasmonics—the science and technology of confining the electric field energy in low-dimensional systems—is an important route to successfully achieve the “ultra-thin solar cells”. Plasmonics offer two routes for light manipulation—near field and far field. These mechanisms in turn enable more secondary mechanisms such as hot-carrier generation, photon up-conversion, nonlinear effects, etc. When employed optimally, these mechanisms will aid one another producing the amplifying effect on the optical absorption in the active semiconductor absorptive layer of solar cell and consequently on the efficiency of the cell. Availability of methodology and techniques for easily and cost-effectively incorporating plasmonic structure in the immediate vicinity of the semiconductor absorber of the solar cell is one of the limiting factors in achieving the ultra-thin solar cells. Plasmonic metasurfaces—2D analog of plasmonic metamaterials—are found to possess broadband optical properties required for solar cells. There is a growing body of research to implement plasmonic light trapping effects on various inorganic and organic ultra-thin solar cells. We will discuss various plasmonic light trapping mechanisms with respect to solar cells and possible directions to successful implementation in various types of industrially important solar cells.In this chapter, we will describe the following aspects: (1) concept behind plasmonic photon management, innovative plasmonic structures to confine, scatter light and modify electric field; 2D multilayers, core–shell structures, custom-designed textures and topography; (2) characterisation methods to probe the plasmonic effects, diagnosis tools employing plasmonic effects; (3) solar cell structures, adapting fabrication process of the first-generation and second-generation solar cells in the market, to make effective use of plasmonic light trapping through both far field and near effects, absorber material consideration, assessment of optical gain compared to plasmonic loss and evolution of electronic/structural defects and shunt paths; (4) challenge of upscaling and industrial plasmonic PV fabrication tool; (5) other practical/potential applications: LED, water splitting, third- and future generation solar cells, special emphasis on up-conversion; and (6) industrial viability of the plasmonic-based devices, compared to existing scenario.This chapter will explain how dimension on optoelectronic devices can be substantially thinned down by increasing light trapping efficiency through plasmonic effects.
... When an electron in the conduction band is transferred to the valence band, it emits a photon. The recombination of electrons and holes in this process is expressed as radiative recombination [31]. The efficiency spectra of the CTS solar cell depending on radiative recombination coefficient (Br (cm 3 /s)) is given in Figure 8a and efficiency remains almost constant between 10 -12 and 10 -8 cm 3 /s, it drops abruptly with 10 -8 cm 3 /s. ...
Cu2SnS3 (CTS) thin film has been produced for 30 ccm sulphur flux rate at 30 minutes annealing durations at 550 oC temperature. CTS thin film’s crystalline structure has been investigated and crystalline size, lattice parameters, dislocation density and microstrain, crystalline number have also been determined. The CTS thin film’s morphological and optical properties have been examined and thoroughly interpreted. Mo/CTS/CdS/AZO solar cell has been modelled based on CTS thin film produced at the present work, using SCAPS-1D simulation programme. Voc, Jsc, FF, conversion efficiency and photovoltaic parameters have been determined depending on neutral defect density at the interface, coefficient of radiative recombination, Auger electron/hole capture’s coefficient and operation temperature of CTS solar cell. As a consequence of simulation study, ideal efficiency of CTS solar cell has been determined to be 3.72 % and all the data obtained in this study have been presented, interpreted and concluded to be original results.
... There are limited comprehensive reports on the optoelectronic study for GaAs-NW based heterojunction SCs using charge carrier selective contacts till date [22][23][24]. In this study, we used Lumerical software to implement an optoelectronic simulation and investigation of ITO/-TiO 2 /GaAs NW-based heterojunction illustrated in Fig. 1(a). ...
Nanowire (NW) solar cells (SCs) with III-V materials have demonstrated superior light harvesting and anti-reflection characteristics, while also consuming less material than planar SCs. However, the performance of NW-based SCs in actual applications falls short of expectations because to their high surface-to-volume ratio and short minority carrier lifetimes. To tackle this, core-shell radial junction SCs are proposed. However, it is extremely difficult to achieve precise doping in both core and shell of NWs while preserving defect-free interface characteristics in the experimental realization, resulting in poor p-n junction quality and significant recombination processes. In this article, we have proposed a core-shell heterojunction SCs composed of p-type GaAs NW as the core material and ITO/TiO2 as the shell material to achieve high efficiency. Using the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) methodology, we have shown that a coating of ITO/TiO2 shell over a geometrically optimized GaAs core may considerably reduce the cell's optical losses. In addition, using Lumerical's Charge solver module we found that the use of n-type TiO2 coating as an electron-selective can significantly improve the minority carrier transport and collection in the device. The optimized structure has exhibited an efficiency of 18.43% even for low minority carrier life-time (τn) of 100ps and carrier mobility (μn) of 1000cm²V⁻¹s⁻¹ while maintaining high surface recombination velocity (SRV) of 10⁷ cm/s and 10⁴ cm/s at contacts and TiO2/GaAs interface, respectively.
... An approach is to instead use optical resonance phenomena in dielectric nanostructures. Both electric and magnetic dipole and higher-order multipole Mie resonances can be excited by light in high-index dielectric particles, allowing for applications such as antireflection, light trapping, and color filters [19][20][21][22][23]. Recent work on enhancing the absorption or carrier collection in a single InP layer or nanostructure InP solar cell technology has shown promise for efficient InP solar cell applications [24][25][26]. However, these studies have concentrated on InP as a freestanding absorbing material. ...
The photovoltaic (PV) market today is dominated by silicon (Si)-based solar cells, which, however, can be improved in performance and cost by developing technologies that use less material. We propose an indium phosphide (InP) nanoresonator array on silicon ultra-thin film with a combined thickness of 0.5 μm to 2 μm as a solution to minimize cost and maximize power efficiency. This paper focuses on simultaneously achieving broadband antireflection and enhanced absorption in thin-film Si with integrated InP nanodisk arrays. Electromagnetic simulations are used to design and optimize the reflectance and absorption of the proposed design. By varying the height and radius of the InP nanodisks on the Si substrate, together with the array pitch, a weighted reflectance minimum, with respect to the AM1.5 solar spectrum, of 2.9% is obtained in the wavelength range of 400 nm to 1100 nm. The antireflective properties are found to be a combination of a Mie-resonance-induced strong forward-scattering into the structure and an effective index-matching to the Si substrate. In terms of absorption, even up to 2 μm from the Si surface the InP nanodisk/Si structure consistently shows superior performance compared to plain Si as well as a Si nanodisk/Si structure. At a depth of 500 nm from the surface of the substrate, the absorption values were found to be 47.5% for the InP nanodisk/Si structure compared to only 18.2% for a plain Si substrate. This shows that direct bandgap InP nanoresonator arrays on thin-film Si solar cells can be a novel design to enhance the absorption efficiency of the cell.
... There are variety of techniques available to grow and integrate nanostructure arrays onto lowcost substrates [10]. And reported nanostructures of different shape and dimensions such as, nanowire, nanopyramid, nanopillar, nanocone etc. and PCE up to 16% has been achieved [11,12,13,14]. Despite their exceptional optoelectronic properties, the nanostructure arrays suffer from high density of surface states along with large surface to volume ratio which limits their PCE [11]. ...
Surface texturing methods are often used in thin-film solar cells (SCs) to achieve effective photon trapping. However, such approaches have a detrimental impact on cell performance and are not suitable for thin-films. Plasmonic light trapping using metal nanoparticles (NPs) is one of the promising technique for achieving superior optical absorption in thin-film SCs with less material usage. In this article, to improve the optical performance of GaAs thin-film SCs, a uniformly distributed Gold (Au) nanoparticle (NP) array is introduced at the top of transparent indium-tin-oxide (ITO) electrode. The Au NP array functions as an antireflection layer, increasing light harvesting in active layer for both visible and infrared (IR) wavelength regions. By performing 3-D finite-different time-domain (FDTD) analysis, we have presented a comparative optoelectronic study of the GaAs SCs with and without Au NPs. Photovoltaic parameters such as optical absorption (A (λ)), photogeneration density (Goptical rate), and photocurrent density (Jsc) are used to evaluate performance of the structures. The proposed thin-film SCs with Au NPs achieved an optical absorption of 60% (planar) and 77% (NW array) with a remarkable photocurrent of 22.8 mA/cm² (planar) and 26.7 mA/cm² respectively.
