Investigation of miniband formation and optical properties of strain-balanced InGaAs/GaAsP superlattice structure embedded in p-i-n GaAs solar cells

摘要

To improve the superlattice (SL) solar cell performance, we carried out an accurate estimation of transition energies and miniband widths and focused on understanding of the optical properties of the SL structure using piezoelectric photothermal (PPT), photoreflectance (PR), and photoluminescence (PL) methods. Solar cell structure samples with different barrier thicknesses from 2.0 to 7.8nm in quantum wells were prepared. From the PR and theoretical calculation, the formation of a miniband was confirmed. The PL peak showed a redshift and a decrease in signal intensity with decreasing barrier thickness, which were explained by carrier separation as a consequence of electron transportation through the miniband without recombination. The PPT signal intensities of the SL were still large even for the 2.0-nm-barrier-thickness sample. It is conceivable that the multiple-phonon emission during carrier transport through the miniband was detected. The usefulness of multidimensional investigation by using the above three methods is clearly demonstrated. (C) 2017 The Japan Society of Applied Physics