High-efficiency single-junction p-i-n GaAs solar cell on roll-to-roll epi-ready flexible metal foils for low-cost photovoltaics

Devendra Khatiwada; Carlos A. Favela; Sicong Sun; Chuanze Zhang; Sahil Sharma; Monika Rathi; Pavel Dutta; Eduard Galstyan; Alex Belianinov; Anton V. Ievlev; Sara Pouladi; Anastasiia Fedorenko; Jae Hyun Ryou; Seth Hubbard; Venkat Selvamanickam

doi:10.1002/pip.3308

High-efficiency single-junction p-i-n GaAs solar cell on roll-to-roll epi-ready flexible metal foils for low-cost photovoltaics

Devendra Khatiwada, Carlos A. Favela, Sicong Sun, Chuanze Zhang, Sahil Sharma, Monika Rathi, Pavel Dutta, Eduard Galstyan, Alex Belianinov, Anton V. Ievlev, Sara Pouladi, Anastasiia Fedorenko, Jae Hyun Ryou, Seth Hubbard, Venkat Selvamanickam

Functional Atomic Force Microscopy Group

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

10 Scopus citations

Abstract

We demonstrate the fabrication and characterization of high-efficiency, single-junction p-i-n GaAs solar cells, on flexible metal foil with epi-ready buffer via roll-to-roll fabrication. Single-junction p-i-n GaAs solar cells were fabricated using metal–organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). An efficiency greater than 13% was obtained at 1 sun, which is the highest reported efficiency on GaAs photovoltaics directly deposited on metal tapes. This exceeds our previously reported study showcasing 11.5% efficiency on single-junction p-n solar cell structure. Improved morphology of p-i-n structure compared with p-n is explained by atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and helium ion microscopy (HIM) measurements. Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) analysis showed reduced Zn diffusion in p-i-n cell compared with the p-n cell. We attribute the improvement in efficiency of p-i-n cells on flexible metal tapes to the quality of the junction, surface morphology, controlled diffusion of species within the active layers, and increase in absorption due to the optimized intrinsic layer thickness.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1107-1119
Number of pages	13
Journal	Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications
Volume	28
Issue number	11
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/pip.3308
State	Published - Nov 1 2020

Funding

This work is partially funded by the US Department of Energy SunShot Initiative award DE-EE0006711. The HIM and ToF-SIMS aspects of the research were conducted at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, which is a DOE Office of Science User Facility, and using instrumentation within ORNL's Materials Characterization Core provided by UT-Battelle, LLC under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy. This work is partially funded by the US Department of Energy SunShot Initiative award DE‐EE0006711. The HIM and ToF‐SIMS aspects of the research were conducted at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, which is a DOE Office of Science User Facility, and using instrumentation within ORNL's Materials Characterization Core provided by UT‐Battelle, LLC under Contract No. DE‐AC05‐00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy.

Keywords

GaAs
HIM
MOCVD
efficiency
flexible
roll-to-roll

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10.1002/pip.3308

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Khatiwada, D., Favela, C. A., Sun, S., Zhang, C., Sharma, S., Rathi, M., Dutta, P., Galstyan, E., Belianinov, A., Ievlev, A. V., Pouladi, S., Fedorenko, A., Ryou, J. H., Hubbard, S., & Selvamanickam, V. (2020). High-efficiency single-junction p-i-n GaAs solar cell on roll-to-roll epi-ready flexible metal foils for low-cost photovoltaics. Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications, 28(11), 1107-1119. https://doi.org/10.1002/pip.3308

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title = "High-efficiency single-junction p-i-n GaAs solar cell on roll-to-roll epi-ready flexible metal foils for low-cost photovoltaics",

abstract = "We demonstrate the fabrication and characterization of high-efficiency, single-junction p-i-n GaAs solar cells, on flexible metal foil with epi-ready buffer via roll-to-roll fabrication. Single-junction p-i-n GaAs solar cells were fabricated using metal–organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). An efficiency greater than 13% was obtained at 1 sun, which is the highest reported efficiency on GaAs photovoltaics directly deposited on metal tapes. This exceeds our previously reported study showcasing 11.5% efficiency on single-junction p-n solar cell structure. Improved morphology of p-i-n structure compared with p-n is explained by atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and helium ion microscopy (HIM) measurements. Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) analysis showed reduced Zn diffusion in p-i-n cell compared with the p-n cell. We attribute the improvement in efficiency of p-i-n cells on flexible metal tapes to the quality of the junction, surface morphology, controlled diffusion of species within the active layers, and increase in absorption due to the optimized intrinsic layer thickness.",

keywords = "GaAs, HIM, MOCVD, efficiency, flexible, roll-to-roll",

author = "Devendra Khatiwada and Favela, {Carlos A.} and Sicong Sun and Chuanze Zhang and Sahil Sharma and Monika Rathi and Pavel Dutta and Eduard Galstyan and Alex Belianinov and Ievlev, {Anton V.} and Sara Pouladi and Anastasiia Fedorenko and Ryou, {Jae Hyun} and Seth Hubbard and Venkat Selvamanickam",

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year = "2020",

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doi = "10.1002/pip.3308",

language = "English",

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Khatiwada, D, Favela, CA, Sun, S, Zhang, C, Sharma, S, Rathi, M, Dutta, P, Galstyan, E, Belianinov, A, Ievlev, AV, Pouladi, S, Fedorenko, A, Ryou, JH, Hubbard, S & Selvamanickam, V 2020, 'High-efficiency single-junction p-i-n GaAs solar cell on roll-to-roll epi-ready flexible metal foils for low-cost photovoltaics', Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications, vol. 28, no. 11, pp. 1107-1119. https://doi.org/10.1002/pip.3308

TY - JOUR

T1 - High-efficiency single-junction p-i-n GaAs solar cell on roll-to-roll epi-ready flexible metal foils for low-cost photovoltaics

AU - Khatiwada, Devendra

AU - Favela, Carlos A.

AU - Sun, Sicong

AU - Zhang, Chuanze

AU - Sharma, Sahil

AU - Rathi, Monika

AU - Dutta, Pavel

AU - Galstyan, Eduard

AU - Belianinov, Alex

AU - Ievlev, Anton V.

AU - Pouladi, Sara

AU - Fedorenko, Anastasiia

AU - Ryou, Jae Hyun

AU - Hubbard, Seth

AU - Selvamanickam, Venkat

PY - 2020/11/1

Y1 - 2020/11/1

N2 - We demonstrate the fabrication and characterization of high-efficiency, single-junction p-i-n GaAs solar cells, on flexible metal foil with epi-ready buffer via roll-to-roll fabrication. Single-junction p-i-n GaAs solar cells were fabricated using metal–organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). An efficiency greater than 13% was obtained at 1 sun, which is the highest reported efficiency on GaAs photovoltaics directly deposited on metal tapes. This exceeds our previously reported study showcasing 11.5% efficiency on single-junction p-n solar cell structure. Improved morphology of p-i-n structure compared with p-n is explained by atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and helium ion microscopy (HIM) measurements. Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) analysis showed reduced Zn diffusion in p-i-n cell compared with the p-n cell. We attribute the improvement in efficiency of p-i-n cells on flexible metal tapes to the quality of the junction, surface morphology, controlled diffusion of species within the active layers, and increase in absorption due to the optimized intrinsic layer thickness.

AB - We demonstrate the fabrication and characterization of high-efficiency, single-junction p-i-n GaAs solar cells, on flexible metal foil with epi-ready buffer via roll-to-roll fabrication. Single-junction p-i-n GaAs solar cells were fabricated using metal–organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). An efficiency greater than 13% was obtained at 1 sun, which is the highest reported efficiency on GaAs photovoltaics directly deposited on metal tapes. This exceeds our previously reported study showcasing 11.5% efficiency on single-junction p-n solar cell structure. Improved morphology of p-i-n structure compared with p-n is explained by atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and helium ion microscopy (HIM) measurements. Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) analysis showed reduced Zn diffusion in p-i-n cell compared with the p-n cell. We attribute the improvement in efficiency of p-i-n cells on flexible metal tapes to the quality of the junction, surface morphology, controlled diffusion of species within the active layers, and increase in absorption due to the optimized intrinsic layer thickness.

KW - GaAs

KW - HIM

KW - MOCVD

KW - efficiency

KW - flexible

KW - roll-to-roll

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U2 - 10.1002/pip.3308

DO - 10.1002/pip.3308

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85088307449

SN - 1062-7995

VL - 28

SP - 1107

EP - 1119

JO - Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications

JF - Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications

IS - 11

ER -

High-efficiency single-junction p-i-n GaAs solar cell on roll-to-roll epi-ready flexible metal foils for low-cost photovoltaics

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