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Carrier-selective contact GaP/Si solar cells grown by molecular beam epitaxy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2018

Chaomin Zhang ,
Ehsan Vadiee ,
Richard R. King  and
Christiana B. Honsberg
Chaomin Zhang*
Affiliation:
School of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA
Ehsan Vadiee
Affiliation:
School of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA
Richard R. King
Affiliation:
School of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA
Christiana B. Honsberg
Affiliation:
School of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA
*
a)Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: chaomin.zhang@asu.edu
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Abstract

Integration of the III–V material systems on Si is an enabling technology for achieving high efficiency heterojunction Si-based photovoltaic devices. Gallium phosphide (GaP) offers numerous potential electrical, optical, and material advantages over amorphous silicon (a-Si) for the realization of several heterojunction solar cell designs. In this paper, details are given for the growth, fabrication, and characterization of different n-GaP/n-Si heterojunction solar cells to explore the effect of GaP as a carrier-selective contact. The cell performance is promising with high Si bulk lifetime (∼2.2 ms at the injection level of 1015 cm−3) and an open-circuit voltage of 618 mV and an efficiency of 13.1% in this new solar cell design. In addition to GaP as an electron-selective contact, MoOx was successfully implemented as a hole-selective contact in the n-GaP/n-Si heterojunction solar cell, increasing efficiency to 14.1% by improving the short wavelength response. The Si bulk lifetime is maintained during growth of GaP on Si by two different approaches and their effects on GaP/Si solar cell performance are also presented.

Keywords

carrier-selective contactgallium phosphideheterojunctionminority-carrier lifetimeSi solar cell
Type
Invited Paper
Information
Journal of Materials Research , Volume 33 , Issue 4 , 28 February 2018 , pp. 414 - 423
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2018 

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Footnotes

Contributing Editor: Sam Zhang

References

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