Quantum engineering of InAs/GaAs quantum dot based intermediate band solar cells

Beattie, Neil, See, Patrick, Zoppi, Guillaume, Ushasree, Palat, Duchamp, Martial, Farrer, Ian, Ritchie, David A. and Tomic, Stanko (2017) Quantum engineering of InAs/GaAs quantum dot based intermediate band solar cells. ACS Photonics, 4 (11). pp. 2745-2750. ISSN 2330-4022

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsphotonics.7b00673

Abstract

The efficiency of a solar cell can be substantially increased by opening new energy gaps within the semiconductor band gap. This creates additional optical absorption pathways which can be fully exploited under concentrated sunlight. Here we report a new approach to opening a sizeable energy gap in a single junction GaAs solar cell using an array of InAs quantum dots that leads directly to high device open circuit voltage. High resolution imaging of individual quantum dots provides experimentally obtained dimensions to a quantum mechanical model which can be used to design an optimised quantum dot array. This is then implemented by precisely engineering the shape and size of the quantum dots resulting in a total area (active area) efficiency of 18.3% (19.7%) at 5 suns concentration. The work demonstrates that only the inclusion of an appropriately designed quantum dot array in a solar cell has the potential to result in ultra-high efficiency under concentration.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: intermediate band solar cell, quantum dots, photovoltaics, concentrated sunlight
Subjects: H600 Electronic and Electrical Engineering
Department: Faculties > Engineering and Environment > Mathematics, Physics and Electrical Engineering
Depositing User: Paul Burns
Date Deposited: 19 Oct 2017 11:28
Last Modified: 01 Aug 2021 09:00
URI: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/32350

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