Thin-film GaAs solar cells with grain-boundary edge passivation
- 15 May 1979
- journal article
- research article
- Published by AIP Publishing in Applied Physics Letters
- Vol. 34 (10) , 699-701
- https://doi.org/10.1063/1.90610
Abstract
Solar cells built on polycrystalline gallium arsenide usually have very leaky reverse characteristics and low open circuit voltage. Both these problems arise from the effect of the Schottky diode made on the grain boundary, which shunts the active Schottky solar cell and deteriorates its performance characteristics. Selective anodization techniques have been used to provide an insuating barrier over the grain boundary in order to passivate it. Leakage current reduction of five to six decades has been achieved by this method. In this letter we describe the electrical and photovoltaic characteristics of devices made by this technique. We report, for the first time, a simulated AM1 conversion efficiency of 5.45% on thin‐film (8.6 μm) polycrystalline GaAs cells with no antireflection coating, fabricated on molybdenum substrates by the simultaneous pyrolysis of trimethylgallium and arsine in hydrogen.Keywords
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