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http://dx.doi.org/10.5757/JKVS.2013.22.1.37

Influence of Carrier Trap in InAs/GaAs Quantum-Dot Solar Cells  

Han, Im Sik (Department of Physics, Yeungnam University)
Kim, Jong Su (Department of Physics, Yeungnam University)
Park, Dong Woo (Faculty of New Materials Engineering, Chonbuk National University)
Kim, Jin Soo (Faculty of New Materials Engineering, Chonbuk National University)
Noh, Sam Kyu (Nano Materials Evaluation Center, Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science)
Publication Information
Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society / v.22, no.1, 2013 , pp. 37-44 More about this Journal
Abstract
In order to investigate an influence of carrier trap by quantum dots (QDs) on the solar parameters, in this study, the $p^+-QD-n/n^+$ solar cells with InAs/GaAs QD active layers are fabricated, and their characteristics are investigated and compared with those of a GaAs matrix solar cell (MSC). Two different types of QD structures, the Stranski-Krastanow (SK) QD and the quasi-monolayer (QML) QD, have been introduced for the QD solar cells, and the parameters (open-circuit voltage ($V_{OC}$), short-cirucuit current ($I_{SC}$), fill factor (FF), conversion efficiency (CE)) are determined from the current-voltage characteristic curves under a standard solar illumination (AM1.5). In SK-QSC, while FF of 80.0% is similar to that of MSC (80.3%), $V_{OC}$ and $J_{SC}$ are reduced by 0.03 V and $2.6mA/cm^2$, respectively. CE is lowered by 2.6% as results of reduced $V_{OC}$ and $J_{SC}$, which is due to a carrier trap into QDs. Though another alternative structure of QML-QD to be expected to relieve the carrier trap have been firstly tried for QSC in this study, it shows negative results contrary to our expectations.
Keywords
Solar cell; Quantum dot; Quasi-monolayer; Photoluminescence; Gallium arsenide; Indium arsenide;
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