Measurements and Modeling of III-V Solar Cells at High Temperatures up to 400 degrees C

Emmett E. Perl, John Simon, John F. Geisz, Minjoo Larry Lee, Daniel J. Friedman, Myles A. Steiner

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

43 Scopus Citations

Abstract

In this paper, we study the performance of 2.0 eV Al0.12Ga0.39In0.49P and 1.4 eV GaAs solar cells over a temperature range of 25-400 °C. The temperature-dependent J 01and J 02dark currents are extracted by fitting current-voltage measurements to a two-diode model. We find that the intrinsic carrier concentration ni dominates the temperature dependence of the dark currents, open-circuit voltage, and cell efficiency. To study the impact of temperature on the photocurrent and bandgap of the solar cells, we measure the quantum efficiency and illuminated current-voltage characteristics of the devices up to 400 °C. As the temperature is increased, we observe no degradation to the internal quantum efficiency and a decrease in the bandgap. These two factors drive an increase in the short-circuit current density at high temperatures. Finally, we measure the devices at concentrations ranging from ∼30 to 1500 suns and observe n = 1 recombination characteristics across the entire temperature range. These findings should be a valuable guide to the design of any system that requires high-Temperature solar cell operation.

Original languageAmerican English
Article number7511789
Pages (from-to)1345-1352
Number of pages8
JournalIEEE Journal of Photovoltaics
Volume6
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2016

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2011-2012 IEEE.

NREL Publication Number

  • NREL/JA-5J00-66661

Keywords

  • gallium arsenide
  • photovoltaic cells
  • photovoltaic systems
  • temperature
  • temperature measurement
  • temperature sensors

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