Beattie, N.S., See, P., Zoppi, G. et al. (5 more authors) (2017) Quantum Engineering of InAs/GaAs Quantum Dot Based Intermediate Band Solar Cells. ACS Photonics, 4 (11). pp. 2745-2750. ISSN 2330-4022
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 sizable 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 optimized 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 ultrahigh efficiency under concentration.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2017 American Chemical Society. This is an open access article published under a Creative Commons Attribution (http://pubs.acs.org/page/policy/authorchoice_ccby_termsofuse.html) License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the author and source are cited. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Engineering (Sheffield) > Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 21 Dec 2017 09:41 |
Last Modified: | 21 Dec 2017 09:41 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1021/acsphotonics.7b00673 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | American Chemical Society |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1021/acsphotonics.7b00673 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:125104 |