InAlAs Photovoltaic Cell Design for High Device Efficiency

This study presents a new design for a single-junction InAlAs solar cell, which reduces parasitic absorption losses from the low band-gap contact layer while maintaining a functional window layer by integrating a selective etch stop. The etch stop is then removed prior to depositing an anti-reflective coating. The final cell had a 17.9% efficiency under 1-sun AM1.5 with an anti-reflective coating. Minority carrier diffusion lengths were extracted from external quantum efficiency data using physics-based device simulation software yielding 170 nm in the n-type emitter and 4.6 μm in the p-type base, which is more than four times the diffusion length previously reported for a p-type InAlAs base. This report represents significant progress towards a high-performance InAlAs top cell for a triple-junction design lattice-matched to InP.