Development of a high-band gap high temperature III-nitride solar cell for integration with concentrated solar power technology

摘要

The III-N material class of semiconductors exhibits desirable properties for construction of a cell for integration with the thermal receiver of a concentrated solar plant. We design a GaN-InGaN based solar cell for operation at 450 °C. An MQW structure for the InGaN absorber is selected to improve voltage through improved material quality. Cell performance shows a VOC of 2.4 V for room temperature and 1.7 V at operating temperature and 300x suns. EQE measurements show little cell performance decrease up to 500 °C. Repeated measurements indicate the device to be thermally robust.