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Junction Operation of GaAs Wire Array Solar Cells

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 March 2013

Adam F. Halverson
Affiliation:
GE Global Research, 1 Research Circle, Niskayuna, NY 12309, U.S.A
Loucas Tsakalakos
Affiliation:
GE Global Research, 1 Research Circle, Niskayuna, NY 12309, U.S.A
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Abstract

Wire array solar cells benefit from enhanced coupling of light into the active area of the device, significantly decreased collection lengths due to radial charge separation and collection, and easier access to grain boundaries for passivation which may enable future deposition on non-wafer substrates. We report on an analysis of the junction operation of wire array based GaAs solar cells through temperature and light intensity dependent current-voltage analysis and compare these data to matched planar devices. We see evidence of non-ideal recombination pathways indicated by activation energies for generation-recombination that are significantly less than the band gap of GaAs. We observe voltage shifts in the wire array devices at low temperature and high light intensity that we posit can be explained by electron accumulation in the window layers of the devices.

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2013 

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References

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