Actions for Bandgap Engineering in High-Efficiency Multijunction Concentrator Cells [electronic resource].

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Bandgap Engineering in High-Efficiency Multijunction Concentrator Cells [electronic resource].

Published
Washington, D.C. : United States. Dept. of Energy, 2005.
Oak Ridge, Tenn. : Distributed by the Office of Scientific and Technical Information, U.S. Dept. of Energy.
Physical Description
6 pages : digital, PDF file
Additional Creators
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (U.S.), United States. Department of Energy, and United States. Department of Energy. Office of Scientific and Technical Information
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Summary
This paper discusses semiconductor device research paths under investigation with the aim of reaching the milestone efficiency of 40%. A cost analysis shows that achieving very high cell efficiencies is crucial for the realization of cost-effective photovoltaics, because of the strongly leveraging effect of efficiency on module packaging and balance-of systems costs. Lattice-matched (LM) GaInP/ GaInAs/ Ge 3-junction cells have achieved the highest independently confirmed efficiency at 175 suns, 25?C, of 37.3% under the standard AM1.5D, low-AOD terrestrial spectrum. Lattice-mismatched, or metamorphic (MM), materials offer still higher potential efficiencies, if the crystal quality can be maintained. Theoretical efficiencies well over 50% are possible for a MM GaInP/ 1.17-eV GaInAs/ Ge 3-junction cell limited by radiative recombination at 500 suns. The bandgap - open circuit voltage offset, (Eg/q) - Voc, is used as a valuable theoretical and experimental tool to characterize multijunction cells with subcell bandgaps ranging from 0.7 to 2.1 eV. Experimental results are presented for prototype 6-junction cells employing an active ≈1.1-eV dilute nitride GaInNAs subcell, with active-area efficiency greater than 23% and over 5.3 V open-circuit voltage under the 1-sun AM0 space spectrum. Such cell designs have theoretical efficiencies under the terrestrial spectrum at 500 suns concentration exceeding 55% efficiency, even for lattice-matched designs.
Report Numbers
E 1.99:nrel/cp-520-38689
nrel/cp-520-38689
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Note
Published through SciTech Connect.
08/01/2005.
"nrel/cp-520-38689"
NREL/CD-520-38172.
King, R. R.; Kurtz, S.; Law, D. C.; Cotal, H. L.; Krut, D. D.; Karam, N. H.; Ermer, J. H.; Sherif, R. A.; Kinsey, G. S.; Fetzer, C. M.; Edmondson, K. M.
Funding Information
AC36-99-GO10337
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