Tournet, J. and Parola, S. and Vauthelin, A. and Montesdeoca Cardenes, D. and Soresi, S. and Martinez, F. and Lu, Q. and Cuminal, Y. and Carrington, P.J. and Décobert, J. and Krier, A. and Rouillard, Y. and Tournié, E. (2019) GaSb-based solar cells for multi-junction integration on Si substrates. Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, 191. pp. 444-450. ISSN 0927-0248
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Abstract
We report on the first single-junction GaSb solar cell epitaxially grown on a Si substrate. A control stand-alone GaSb solar cell was primarily fabricated, which demonstrated a 5.90% efficiency (AM1.5G). The preparation, growth and manufacturing procedures were then adapted to create the GaSb-on-Si solar cell. The hybrid device resulted in a degraded efficiency for which comparison between experimental and simulated data revealed dominant non-radiative recombination processes. Material and electrical characterization also highlighted the impact of anti-phase domains and boundaries and threading dislocation density on the shunt resistance of the cell. Nevertheless, the GaSb-on-Si cell performance is close to recent results on the integration of GaSb solar cells on GaAs, despite a much larger lattice mismatch (12% vs 8%). Routes for improvement, concerning the material quality and cell structure, are proposed. This work lays the foundations of a GaSb-based multi-junction solar cell monolithically integrated on Si.