The epitaxial growth of high efficiency inverted metamorphic triple junction solar cell for CPV application

Abstract

In this paper, 3J-IMM solar cells were studied in comparison with 3J-LM solar cells grown by MOCVD. The structural characteristics were studied by HRXRD, HRTEM and SIMS, which showed a high crystal quality of the metamorphic sub-cell. The solar cell performance in terms of I-V curves and EQE was investigated between the different solar cells structures. The current of the IMM solar cell is almost equal to the LM monitor solar cell. Under AM 1.5D, 1000 suns conditions, an Isc of 14.29 A, Voc of 3.538 , FF of 83.9 %, and an efficiency of 42.3 % were achieved for the 3J-IMM solar cell with a chip size of 1.0 cm2, which is an absolute 2.9% higher than that of a 3J-LM solar cell in conversion efficiency. The excess current contribution from the Ge bottom cell in the 3J-LM solar cells is eliminated, accompanied with a 0.3V increase in Voc for the 3J-IMM solar cells.