Low-Cost Passivated Al Front Contacts for III-V/Ge Multijunction Solar Cells

Olivier Richard (), Artur Turala, Vincent Aimez, Maxime Darnon and Abdelatif Jaouad
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Olivier Richard: Laboratoire Nanotechnologies Nanosystèmes (LN2) - CNRS UMI-3463, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, QC J1K 0A5, Canada
Artur Turala: Laboratoire Nanotechnologies Nanosystèmes (LN2) - CNRS UMI-3463, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, QC J1K 0A5, Canada
Vincent Aimez: Laboratoire Nanotechnologies Nanosystèmes (LN2) - CNRS UMI-3463, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, QC J1K 0A5, Canada
Maxime Darnon: Laboratoire Nanotechnologies Nanosystèmes (LN2) - CNRS UMI-3463, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, QC J1K 0A5, Canada
Abdelatif Jaouad: Laboratoire Nanotechnologies Nanosystèmes (LN2) - CNRS UMI-3463, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, QC J1K 0A5, Canada

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 17, 1-9

Abstract: Improving the performances and reducing costs of III-V multijunction solar cells are crucial in aerospatial energy systems and in terrestrial concentrator modules. We attempted to achieve both objectives by implementing non-ohmic metal/semiconductor interface contacts on the front surface of III-V/Ge triple-junction solar cells. We demonstrate the feasibility of this concept for this type of solar cell by a simple evaporation of Al only either on the GaAs contact layer or the AlInP window. The best results were obtained when sulfur passivation by (NH 4 )2S x was conducted on the GaAs contact layer. This allowed for a reduction in reverse saturation dark current density by one order of magnitude and a slight increase in V o c of almost 20 mV under 1 sun illumination relative to a reference device with Pd/Ge/Ti/Pd ohmic contacts. However, poor performances were observed at first under concentrated sunlight. Further annealing the solar cells with Al front metallization resulted in the reduction of V o c to the same level as the reference solar cell but allowed for good performances under high illumination. Indeed, an efficiency over 34% was observed at 500 suns light intensity both for Al and Pd/Ge/Ti/Pd contacted solar cells.

Keywords: concentrated photovoltaics; III-V; contact passivation; contact metallization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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