Influence of bandgap narrowing effects in p/sup +/-GaAs on solar cell performance

Abstract
The authors review electrical measurements of bandgap-narrowing effects in p/sup +/-GaAs and assess their influence on solar cell performance. It is found that these effects degrade solar cell performance by increasing the dark current associated with electron injection in p/sup +/-n cells and degrading the performance of p-p/sup +/ back-surface fields. The authors describe an experiment which directly measures the electron recombination velocity, S, for a p-p/sup +/ back-surface field, and they show that the high value of S can be explained by bandgap narrowing. Computer simulation is used to assess the influence of bandgap narrowing on realistic solar cells.