Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
References: 1. Physics of Solar Cells. Jenny Nelson. Imperial College Press, 2003. 2. Photovoltaic Materials, Series on Properties of Semiconductor Materials, Vol.1, Richard H. Bube, Imperial College Press, 1998. 3. Handbook of Photovoltaic Science and Engineering. Antonio Luque, Steven Hegedus. Wiley, 2003. 4. Photovoltaic Solar Energy Generation. Adolf Goetzberger, Volker U. Hoffmann. Springer, 2005. 5. Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page).
For good optical absorption, (1) large optical depth, (E)(xp+xn) for photon energy E>Eg; (2) small reflectivity of the surface, R(E). For good charge separation, (1) large built-in bias Vbi demanding high doping gradient across the junction; (2) slow charge recombination in the junction region; (3) junction located close to the surface for effective charge separation over a range of wavelengths. For efficient minority and majority carrier transport, (1) long minority carrier lifetimes (n, p) and diffusion lengths (Ln, Lp), small surface recombination velocities (Sn, Sp); (2) small series resistance Rs and large shunt resistance Rsh. The band gap should be close to the optimum for the intended solar spectrum, bs(E).
Efciency/ %
30 20 10
Single band gap solar cell under AM1.5
The thickness should exceed the absorption length, for efficient light absorption. The junction should be shallow compared to both the diffusion length in the emitter and the absorption length, to avoid having a dead layer at the front of the cell. The emitter should be doped heavily to improve conductivity to the metallic contacts on the front of the cell. Heavy emitter doping also allows the base to be doped lightly, improving collection in the neutral base region without limiting VOC.
Band Gap/ eV
Monocrystalline, Multicrystalline: crystal grain size is comparable with or larger than the device thickness. Polycrystalline, Microcrystalline: the grain size is much smaller than device Reflection of light should be minimized, and treated with an antithickness. Grain boundary effects may reflection (AR) coating (refractive dominate charge transport. index between sc and air).
Carrier Transport Electron mobility in p-silicon is higher than the hole mobility in n-silicon doped to the same level. Carrier collection is more efficient in p-silicon than in an nlayer. So cells are designed as n-p cells with a thin n type emitter on top of a thick p type base.
Energy
emitter n-type base p-type
EC EV
0.3 m doping density 300 m
EF
Distance
Phosphorus Diffusion
N2+POCl3
(a) A quartz furnace; and (b) a belt furnace for the diffusion of phosphorus
10
Absorption of light close to the band gap is poor. Bulk recombination in p region is most important. Rear surface recombination is important.
To improve the performance of cell it is necessary to maximize the absorption of red light, minimize recombination at the rear surface, and minimize series resistance. Bulk recombination is already as low as can be expected for good quality silicon.
11
12
13
EC
EV
p p+
The microgrooved passivated emitter solar cell (PESC cell) of 1985, the rst silicon cell to exceed 20% efciency.
14
p p+ p contact
p p+ p contact
15
16
Chemically textured non-reflecting black cell (so called because of their almost zero reflectivity) in the early 1980s, and exhibited efficiencies of up to 17%.
17
oxide layer
Rear point contact solar cell which demonstrated 22% efficiency in 1988 (cell rear shown uppermost). The cell is made from lightly doped n type silicon with heavily doped n and p type regions close to contacts on the rear surface. The front surface is passivated and textured as usual.
18
The passivated emitter, rear locally diffused cell (PERL cell) which took efficiency above 24% in the early 1990s.
19
20
Exploded view of a standard silicon photovoltaic module. The different layers shown are laminated together under pressure at a temperature around 140 150 oC where the transparent EVA (ethylene vinyl acetate) softens and binds the different layers together on cooling.
21
22
An alloy containing equal numbers of atoms from groups III and V; Zinc blende crystal structure (ambient); Band gap is controllable by replacing some of the group III atoms with another group III elements.
Eg/eV Nature of Density Dielectric at 300 K Energy Gap at 300K Constant AlP AlAs AlSb GaP GaAs GaSb InP InAs InSb 2.45 2.153 1.615 2.272 1.424 0.75 1.344 0.76 0.17 Indirect Indirect Indirect Indirect Direct Direct Direct Direct Direct 3.717 4.29 4.129 5.318 5.63 4.81 5.69 5.80 9.8 10.06 12.04 11.1 12.5 15.7 12.4 14.6 17.7
http://www.semiconductors.co.uk/propiiiv5653.htm
23
24
25
26
Absorption of light is good at all wavelengths. Front surface recombination is important for long wavelengths Bulk recombination is unimportant relative to junction and surface. Rear surface recombination is negligible because of the high absorption.
To optimize GaAs cell design it is necessary to minimize front surface recombination, minimize junction recombination, minimize series resistance, and minimize substrate cost.
27
p-GaAs EF
1. Front surface field (FSF): A heavily doped n-GaAs layer is introduced by diffusion, as the BSF in silicon cells. 2. Window layers: Front surface recombination can be reduced by introducing a front surface window of a higher band gap material to reflect electron away from the surface. Similar to BSF, the higher band gap of window layer presents a potential barrier to electrons generated in the p region. The window layer is transparent to most visible light, but the interface with the bulk GaAs is much less defective. (Buried homojunction) 3. Heterojunctions: Fabricate the whole emitter from a wider gap material than the base, producing a p-n heterojunction. So the emitter still absorbs blue light but recombination is suppressed. In addition, the wider gap emitter may increase VOC. However, it is likely to introduce defect and assist recombination.
28
4. Graded emitters: Grade the composition of the p layer, from GaAs near to the junction, to a high band gap alloy at the front surface. The electric field introduced by the compositional gradient assists electron migration to the junction. (AlxGa1-xAs of varying Al fraction.)
EC p+-AlGaAs EV
a1
-x A
EF n-GaAs
Strategies to reduce series resistance: It is particularly important for GaAs concentrator cells. For a cell under 100 suns, the sheet resistance should be less than 10-3 Ohm-cm2, while the front surface contact pattern should be designed to minimize shading without enhancing series resistance. Strategies to reduce substrate cost: Substrate should have the same lattice constant as the cell material in order not to introduce crystal defects at the rear surface. GaAs is prohibitively expensive to be the substrate. Ge can be used but is rather rare. One approach is to use polycrystalline GaAs as cell material, in which case lattice matching with a substrate is less important. 20% efficient poly-GaAs cells have been obtained.
29
MBE
MOVPE
III-Vs are grown by a number of epitaxial techniques such as liquid phase epitaxy (LBE), molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) and metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE). These techniques allow minute control of the composition and layer thickness, while very costly.
30
31
Summary
32