EFFECT OF BARRIER THICKNESS ON CARRIER TRANSPORT

INSIDE MULTIPLE QUANTUM WELL SOLAR CELLS

UNDER HIGH-CONCENTRATION ILLUMINATION
ABSTRACT
Carrier transport inside InGaAs/GaAs/GaAsP multiple quantum well (MQW) solar cells
was discussed under highconcentrated sunlight illumination up to 338 suns.Currentvoltage (I
V) characteristic curves for a GaAs reference cell and MQW cells with GaAsP barrier thickness
of 2, 4, and 6 nm were investigated under dark and high-concentration illumination. Carrier
collection efficiency (CCE) was estimated by net photocurrent, which is the difference between
illuminated current and dark current density at each bias voltage normalized by the value at the
saturated point. For the 2-nm barrier, CCE exhibited almost no degradation compared with the
GaAs reference cell. On the other hand, CCE for the 6-nm barrier degraded with forward biases
as the sunlight concentration ratio increased. The degradation in CCE under a high-concentration
ratio is shown to be the result of carrier accumulation in quantum wells. Thin barriers seemed to
eliminate such accumulation with the help of the carrier tunneling effect through the barriers..