Impact of carrier dynamics on the photovoltaic performance of quantum dot solar cells
- Author(s): Mariangela Gioannini 1 ; Ariel P. Cedola 2 ; Federica Cappelluti 1
-
-
View affiliations
-
Affiliations:
1:
Department of Electronics and Telecommunications, Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129 Torino, Italy;
2: GEMyDE, Group of Studies about Materials and Electronic Devices, Faculty of Engineering, National University of La Plata, Argentina
-
Affiliations:
1:
Department of Electronics and Telecommunications, Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129 Torino, Italy;
- Source:
Volume 9, Issue 2,
April 2015,
p.
69 – 74
DOI: 10.1049/iet-opt.2014.0080 , Print ISSN 1751-8768, Online ISSN 1751-8776
The study presents a theoretical investigation of the impact of individual electron and hole dynamics on the photovoltaic characteristics of InAs/GaAs quantum dot solar cells. The analysis is carried out by exploiting a model which includes a detailed description of quantum dots (QD) kinetics within a drift-diffusion formalism. Steady-state and transient simulations show that hole thermal spreading across the closely spaced QD valence band states allows to extract the maximum achievable photocurrent from the QDs; on the other hand, slow hole dynamics turns QDs into efficient traps, impairing the short circuit current despite the extended light harvesting provided by the QDs.
Inspec keywords: indium compounds; gallium arsenide; electron optics; solar cells; valence bands; III-V semiconductors; semiconductor quantum dots; radiation pressure
Other keywords: hole thermal spreading; closely spaced QD valence band states; steady-state simulations; InAs-GaAs; optical trapping; photovoltaic characteristics; transient simulations; photocurrent; light harvesting; carrier dynamics; hole dynamics; drift-diffusion formalism; electron dynamics; indium arsenide-gallium arsenide quantum dot solar cells
Subjects: Mechanical effects of light; Solar cells and arrays; Photoelectric conversion; solar cells and arrays; Semiconductor superlattices, quantum wells and related structures; Solar collectors, concentrators and control films: optical aspects; II-VI and III-V semiconductors; Electron beams and electron optics
References
-
-
1)
-
22. Guimard, D., Morihara, R., Bordel, D., et al: ‘Fabrication of InAs/GaAs quantum dot solar cells with enhanced photocurrent and without degradation of open circuit voltage’, Appl. Phys. Lett., 2010, 96, (20), p. 203507 (doi: 10.1063/1.3427392).
-
-
2)
-
19. O'Driscoll, I., Piwonski, T., Schleussner, C.F., Houlihan, J., Huyet, G., Manning, R.: ‘Electron and hole dynamics of InAs/GaAs quantum dot semiconductor optical amplifiers’, Appl. Phys. Lett., 2007, 91, (7), pp. 071111–071111–3 (doi: 10.1063/1.2771374).
-
-
3)
- T.R. Nielsen , P. Gartner , F. Jahnke . Many-body theory of carrier capture and relaxation in semiconductor quantum-dot lasers. Phys. Rev. B , 23
-
4)
-
18. NSM Electronic Archive: ‘New semiconductor materials, characteristics and properties’ (Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute). Available: http://www.ioffe.ru/SVA/NSM/Semicond.
-
-
5)
- M. Rossetti , P. Bardella , I. Montrosset . Time-domain travelling-wave model for quantum dot passively mode-locked lasers. IEEE J. Quantum Electron. , 2 , 139 - 150
-
6)
-
8. Fiore, A., Markus, A.: ‘Differential gain and gain compression in quantum-dot lasers’, IEEE J. Quantum Electron., 2007, 43, (3), pp. 287–294 (doi: 10.1109/JQE.2006.890399).
-
-
7)
-
17. Lüdge, K., Schöll, E.: ‘Nonlinear dynamics of doped semiconductor quantum dot lasers’, Eur. Phys. J. D, 2010, 58, pp. 167–174 (doi: 10.1140/epjd/e2010-00041-8).
-
-
8)
-
16. Dai, Y., Bailey, C.G., Kerestes, C., Forbes, D., Hubbard, S.M.: ‘Investigation of carrier escape mechanism in InAs/GaAs quantum dot solar cells’. 38th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conf. (PVSC), 2012, pp. 000039–000044.
-
-
9)
-
4. Lam, P., Hatch, S., Wu, J., et al: ‘Voltage recovery in charged InAs/GaAs quantum dot solar cells’, Nano Energy, 2014, 6, pp. 159–166 (doi: 10.1016/j.nanoen.2014.03.016).
-
-
10)
-
15. Lüdge, K., Schöll, E.: ‘Quantum-dot lasers – desynchronized nonlinear dynamics of electrons and holes’, IEEE J. Quantum Electron., 2009, 45, (11), pp. 1396–1403 (doi: 10.1109/JQE.2009.2028159).
-
-
11)
-
15. Jolley, G., Fu, L., Lu, H., Tan, H.H., Jagadish, C.: ‘The role of intersubband optical transitions on the electrical properties of InGaAs/GaAs quantum dot solar cells’, Prog. Photovolt: Res. Appl., 2013, 21, (4), pp. 736–746.
-
-
12)
-
1. Bailey, C.G., Forbes, D.V., Polly, S.J., et al: ‘Open-circuit voltage improvement of InAs-GaAs quantum-dot solar cells using reduced InAs coverage’, IEEE J. Photovoltaics, 2012, 2, (3), pp. 269–275 (doi: 10.1109/JPHOTOV.2012.2189047).
-
-
13)
-
13. Sablon, K.A., Little, J.W., Mitin, V., Sergeev, A., Vagidov, N., Reinhardt, K.: ‘Strong enhancement of solar cell efficiency due to quantum dots with built-in charge’, Nano Lett., 2011, 11, (6), pp. 2311–2317 (doi: 10.1021/nl200543v).
-
-
14)
-
11. Magnusdottir, I., Uskov, A.V., Bischoff, S., Tromborg, B., Mrk, J.: ‘One- and two-phonon capture processes in quantum dots’, J. Appl. Phys., 2002, 92, (10), pp. 5982–5990 (doi: 10.1063/1.1512694).
-
-
15)
-
9. Dai, Y., Polly, S., Hellström, S., et al: ‘Effects of electric field on thermal and tunnelingcarrier escape in InAs/GaAs quantum dot solar cells’. Proc. SPIE, 2014, vol. 8981, pp. 898106–898106–6.
-
-
16)
-
2. Polly, S., Forbes, D., Driscoll, K., Hellstrom, S., Hubbard, S.: ‘Delta-doping effects on quantum-dot solar cells’, IEEE J. Photovoltaics, 2014, 4, (4), pp. 1079–10857 (doi: 10.1109/JPHOTOV.2014.2316677).
-
-
17)
-
7. Borri, P., Schneider, S., Langbein, W., Bimberg, D.: ‘Ultrafast carrier dynamics in InGaAs quantum dot materials and devices’, J. Opt. A, Pure Appl. Opt., 2006, 8, (4), p. S33 (doi: 10.1088/1464-4258/8/4/S03).
-
-
18)
-
14. Gioannini, M., Cedola, A., Di Santo, N., Bertazzi, F., Cappelluti, F.: ‘Simulation of quantum dot solar cells including carrier intersubband dynamics and transport’, IEEE J. Photovoltaics, 2013, 3, (4), pp. 1271–1278 (doi: 10.1109/JPHOTOV.2013.2270345).
-
-
19)
-
21. Ridley, B.: ‘Space-charge-mediated capture of electrons and holes in a quantum well’, Phys. Rev. B, 1994, 50, (3), p. 1717 (doi: 10.1103/PhysRevB.50.1717).
-
-
20)
-
3. Morioka, T., Ryuji, O., Takata, A., et al: ‘Multi-stacked InAs/GaNAs quantum dots with direct Si doping for use in intermediate band solar cell’. 35th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conf. (PVSC), 2010, pp. 001834–001837.
-
-
21)
-
12. Ignatiev, I.V., Kozin, I.E.: ‘Semiconductor quantum dots’ (Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 2002), ch. Dynamics of Carrier Relaxation in Self-Assembled Quantum Dots.
-
-
22)
-
17. Caughey, D.M., Thomas, R.E.: ‘Carrier mobility in Silicon empirically related to doping and field’. Proc. IEEE, 1967, vol. 55, pp. 2192–2193.
-
-
23)
-
20. Lingnau, B., Lüdge, K., Chow, W.W., Schöll, E.: ‘Influencing modulation properties of quantum-dot semiconductor lasers by carrier lifetime engineering’, Appl. Phys. Lett., 2012, 101, (13), p. 131107 (doi: 10.1063/1.4754588).
-
-
1)
Related content
