Systems and methods for advanced ultra-high-performance InP solar cells
Systems and Methods for Advanced Ultra-High-Performance InP Solar Cells are provided. In one embodiment, an InP photovoltaic device comprises: a p-n junction absorber layer comprising at least one InP layer; a front surface confinement layer; and a back surface confinement layer; wherein either the front surface confinement layer or the back surface confinement layer forms part of a High-Low (HL) doping architecture; and wherein either the front surface confinement layer or the back surface confinement layer forms part of a heterointerface system architecture.
1. A photovoltaic device comprising:
a High-Low (HL) doping architecture comprising a front surface confinement layer and an emitter layer; and
a heterointerface system architecture comprising a back surface confinement layer and a base layer, wherein:
the emitter layer and the base layer form a p-n junction absorber layer,
at least one of the emitter layer or the base layer comprises InP, and
the front surface confinement layer comprises n-type InP and has a thickness of 7 nm or less.
2. The device of claim 1 , wherein the p-n junction absorber layer includes a homojunction, and both the emitter layer and the base layer comprise InP.
3. The device of claim 1 , wherein the p-n junction absorber layer includes a heterojunction.
4. The device of claim 1 , wherein:
the emitter layer comprises n-type InP and is more lightly doped than the front surface confinement layer, and
a recombination rate is radiatively dominated in the emitter layer.
5. The device of claim 4 , wherein the front surface confinement layer is doped degenerately.
6. The device of claim 1 , wherein the at least one of the back surface confinement layer or the base layer comprises p-type InP.
7. The device of claim 1 , wherein the base layer comprises p-type InP, and the back surface confinement layer comprises one of: GaAsSb, AlAsSb, AlGaAsSb, AlInAs, AlInAsSb, AlGaInAsSb, GaPSb, AlPSb, or AlGaPSb.
8. The device of claim 1 , wherein the device has an ultra-thin cell structure.
9. The device of claim 1 , further comprising a back surface reflector layer formed on the back surface confinement layer.
10. The device of claim 9 , wherein the back surface reflector layer comprises one of:
a hybrid multi-layer-dielectric with a metal reflector;
an omnidirectional reflector (ODR) comprising a dielectric layer and a metal layer; or
a broad-band high-low index distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) with high reflectance.
11. The device of claim 9 , further comprising:
a contact layer electrically coupled to the back surface confinement layer; and
a metallization layer electrically coupled to the contact layer.
12. The device of claim 9 , further comprising a metallization layer electrically coupled to the base layer.
13. The device of claim 1 , wherein the at least one of the emitter layer or the base layer comprises a pseudo-binary alloy of InP containing up to 5% of at least one of Boron (B), Nitrogen (N), Aluminum (Al), Phosphorous (P), Gallium (Ga), Arsenic (As), Antimony (Sb), Indium (In), Thallium (Tl), or Bismuth (Bi).