As solar cells from direct semiconductors improve, i.e. become more radiative, luminescent coupling becomes more and more relevant. This has a strong impact on artifacts in EQE measurements of multi-junction solar cells, which e.g. is a challenge, when characterizing III-V//Si multi-junction solar cells. By measuring the response of these cells under varying illumination conditions, this effect can be understood and EQE measurements can be corrected.
Direct wafer-bonding after argon-beam surface activation is a low temperature process, which allows for the monolithic integration of various materials including Si, Ge, III-V compound semiconductors, SiC or Al2O3 etc.
The process requires smooth wafer surfaces with RMS roughnesses < 1 nm and minimal particle contaminations, which is usually achieved by chemical-mechanical polishing. These wafers are sputtered with Ar in ultra-high vacuum (< 3 x 10-6 Pa) to remove few nanometers of oxides and contaminants. The process results in a thin amorphous surface layer with dangling bonds. Subsequently, the wafers are pressed together so that covalent bonds are formed, permanently joining the materials.
As no intermediate layers are applied, the approach enables a high optical transparency together with mechanical stability as well as highest electrical and thermal conductivity. The process parameters are optimized for various material to obtain electrical bond resistances < 5 mΩcm2. Even in multi-junction cells operated at a few hundred suns with current densities of ~5 A/cm2, these resistances do not significantly limit the cell efficiencies. These unique characteristics of the resulting wafer-bonds make the technique promising for a wide range of innovations in photonics or power electronics.
We apply direct wafer-bonding in the fabrication of various concepts for III-V based multi-junction solar cells reaching highest efficiencies. Examples are a wafer-bonded GaInP/GaAs//GaInAsP/GaInAs solar cell that exhibits an efficiency of 46.1 % at 312 suns as well as a GaInP/GaAs/GaInAs//GaSb solar cell with 43.8 % efficiency at 796 suns. Further, the process enables the monolithic integration of III-V materials on Si, at which a record efficiency of 34.1 % at 1 sun could be recently achieved with a GaInP/AlGaAs//Si solar cell.
Single-junction Si solar cell efficiencies are intrinsically limited to 29.4%. One common strategy to overcome this fundamental issue is to combine multiple semiconductor materials with different bandgaps in a multi-junction configuration so that light is effectively absorbed over a broad range in the solar spectrum. In particular, the combination of a III-V top cell (GaInP/GaAs) that is wafer-bonded to a planar Si bottom cell led recently to an overall record efficiency of 34.1%. The efficiency of this tandem design could be further improved if absorption in the Si cell near the bandgap (1000-1200 nm) is enhanced.
Here, we present a nanostructured metallodielectric back reflector placed at the rear of the Si cell that selectively steers incoming light to angles outside the escape cone of the tandem cell. The design is composed of a hexagonal array of Ag nanodisks embedded in a PMMA layer at the rear of the Si cell. Using finite-difference time-domain simulations we optimize pitch, radius, and height of the individual Ag scatterer such that we evenly distribute scattered power over the different diffraction orders. We analyze the scattering behavior in terms of plasmon scattering by the Ag disks and Mie scattering in the dielectric PMMA inclusions. To fully optimize light trapping inside the cell, we choose the geometry such that both 0th-order reflection and plasmonic losses in the Ag nanodisks are minimized.
We experimentally demonstrate photonic light trapping by fabricating large scale (2.5×2.5 cm) nanopatterns on untextured Si solar cells. Large-area patterning is performed via Substrate Conformal Imprint Lithography (SCIL) using silica sol-gel as a mask to etch patterns in PMMA, followed by thermal evaporation of Ag. Cross-section SEM shows excellent conformal deposition of Ag inside the patterned nanoholes. Light scattering spectroscopy shows a clearly reduced reflection of the Si cell in the desired wavelength range (1000-1200 nm) due to light trapping, in agreement with simulations. Experimental data of the full nanopatterned III-V/Si tandem geometry will be shown.
KEYWORDS: Silicon, Solar cells, Silver, External quantum efficiency, Tandem solar cells, Etching, Nanoimprint lithography, Scattering, Silicon photonics, Silicon solar cells
Different photonic light trapping structures realized by a combination of interference- and nanoimprint-lithography as well as based on self-organization processes are presented. Their potential as rear side light trapping structures for silicon based tandem solar cells is evaluated based on the comparison of EQE measurements and optical modeling. The photonic structure used in the current world record III-V silicon tandem solar cell is a metallic crossed grating with 1μm period. This structure is shown in detail and acts as benchmark for the comparison of the concepts. Finally, the requirements for a successful implementation of photonic structures in highest efficiency solar cells are shown.
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