High-efficiency double-heterostructure AlGaAs/GaAs solar cells

Abstract

Double-heterostructure solar cells have been fabricated from wafers prepared by using organometallic chemical vapor deposition to grow a p GaAs absorbing layer sandwiched between p(+) and n(+) AlGaAs layers. The best cell, which incorporates an abrupt AlGaAs/GaAs shallow heterojunction, exhibits a global AM1 one-sun conversion efficiency of 23 percent. The rate at which the open-circuit voltage decreases with increasing temperature is lower for the double-heterostructure cells than for GaAs shallow-homojunction cells.