TY - GEN
T1 - Analysis of loss mechanisms in InGaN solar cells using a semi-analytical model
AU - Huang, Xuanqi
AU - Fu, Houqiang
AU - Chen, Hong
AU - Lv, Zhijian
AU - Ding, Ding
AU - Zhao, Yuji
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by an Early Career Faculty grant from NASA’s Space Technology Research Grants Program.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 IEEE.
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - IlI-nitrides material systems have attracting growing interests in photovoltaic (PV) applications after huge success in optoelectronics. In this work, a semi-analytical model is used to analyze the PV performance of single junction InGaN solar cells. Through clarifying four basic types of loss mechanisms, including transmission loss, thermalization loss, spatial relaxation loss and recombination loss, we discover that transmission loss accounts for the primary part of efficiency loss due to the large bandgaps of III-nitride materials. As for all recombination-related losses, Shockley-Reed-Hall (SRH) recombination loss is dominant over others. By incorporating non-step-like absorptance and emittance with below-bandgap absorption, we discover that reducing SRH recombination current by improving the material quality of InGaN layers proves an efficient approach to optimize the cell performance. Furthermore, the energy conversion efficiency increases with higher material quality and larger solar concentration. Our calculations show that energy conversion efficiency of 7.35% can be achieved under one sun and maximum efficiency of 8.43% under 1000 suns. This theoretical study offers detailed guidance for the future design of high-performance thin film InGaN solar cells.
AB - IlI-nitrides material systems have attracting growing interests in photovoltaic (PV) applications after huge success in optoelectronics. In this work, a semi-analytical model is used to analyze the PV performance of single junction InGaN solar cells. Through clarifying four basic types of loss mechanisms, including transmission loss, thermalization loss, spatial relaxation loss and recombination loss, we discover that transmission loss accounts for the primary part of efficiency loss due to the large bandgaps of III-nitride materials. As for all recombination-related losses, Shockley-Reed-Hall (SRH) recombination loss is dominant over others. By incorporating non-step-like absorptance and emittance with below-bandgap absorption, we discover that reducing SRH recombination current by improving the material quality of InGaN layers proves an efficient approach to optimize the cell performance. Furthermore, the energy conversion efficiency increases with higher material quality and larger solar concentration. Our calculations show that energy conversion efficiency of 7.35% can be achieved under one sun and maximum efficiency of 8.43% under 1000 suns. This theoretical study offers detailed guidance for the future design of high-performance thin film InGaN solar cells.
KW - InGaN
KW - Loss mechanisms
KW - Solar cell
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U2 - 10.1109/PVSC.2017.8366653
DO - 10.1109/PVSC.2017.8366653
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85048457805
T3 - 2017 IEEE 44th Photovoltaic Specialist Conference, PVSC 2017
SP - 126
EP - 131
BT - 2017 IEEE 44th Photovoltaic Specialist Conference, PVSC 2017
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
T2 - 44th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialist Conference, PVSC 2017
Y2 - 25 June 2017 through 30 June 2017
ER -