Ultrathin Multiple Quantum Wells Solar Cell Based on Silicon/Germanium Nanostructures

In this work, we report a proof-of-concept for an ultrathin multiple quantum wells (MQW) solar cell based on silicon (barrier)/germanium (QW) heterostructures integrated as a subwavelength photonic resonator below 50 nm. The multiplication of the QWs number in a periodic configuration of 6 times 2.5...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in2021 IEEE 48th Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC) pp. 0975 - 0978
Main Authors Meddeb, Hosni, Gotz-Kohler, Maximilian, Osterthun, Norbert, Sergeev, Oleg, Gehrke, Kai, Vehse, Martin, Agert, Carsten
Format Conference Proceeding
LanguageEnglish
Published IEEE 20.06.2021
Subjects
absorbing nanophotonic resonator
High-voltage techniques
multiple quantum wells
Nanoscale devices
Nanostructures
Optical resonators
optoelectronic modeling
Performance evaluation
Photovoltaic cells
semiconductor nanostructures
Silicon
ultrathin solar cell
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DOI10.1109/PVSC43889.2021.9519023

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Summary:In this work, we report a proof-of-concept for an ultrathin multiple quantum wells (MQW) solar cell based on silicon (barrier)/germanium (QW) heterostructures integrated as a subwavelength photonic resonator below 50 nm. The multiplication of the QWs number in a periodic configuration of 6 times 2.5 nm-thick QWs allows the enhancement of photocurrent while maintaining high voltage and fill factor. Compared to a single QW (SQW) nanoabsorber of 20 nm, the implementation of MQW architecture with similar total thickness results in a significant enhancement of the photoconversion efficiency from 3 % to 5%, yielding a relative improvement of about 65%. Based on optoelectronic modeling of the optical field distribution and the electronic structure at the QW/barrier heterojunctions, the output characteristics of the subwavelength MQW solar cell device are analyzed.
DOI:10.1109/PVSC43889.2021.9519023