GaAs Solar Cells Grown by Hydride Vapor-Phase Epitaxy and the Development of GaInP Cladding Layers

The high cost of high-efficiency III-V photovoltaic devices currently limits them to niche markets. Hydride vapor-phase epitaxy (HVPE) growth of III-V materials recently reemerged as a low-cost, high-throughput alternative to conventional metal-organic vapor-phase epitaxy (MOVPE) growth of high-efficiency solar cells. Previously, we demonstrated unpassivated HVPE-grown GaAs p-n junctions with good quantum efficiency and high open-circuit voltage (V_oc). In this work, we demonstrate the growth of GaInP by HVPE for use as a high-quality surface passivation layer to GaAs solar cells. Solar cells grown with GaInP window layers show significantly improved quantum efficiency compared with unpassivated cells, increasing the short-circuit current (J_SC) of these low-cost devices. These results show the potential of low-cost HVPE for the growth of high-quality III-V devices.