Advantages of quantum well solar cells for TPV

• Main Authors: GRIFFIN, Paul Robert, Ballard, I., Barnham, K., Nelson, J., Zachariou, A., Button, C., Hopkinson, M., Pate, M.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 1997
• Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sis_research/3234
• Institution: Singapore Management University

We discuss the advantages of quantum well solar cells (QWSCs) for thermophotovoltaic (TPV) applications and illustrate them with a test cell grown in GaInAsP/InGaAs lattice-matched to InP but not optimised for TPV. It is shown that a GaInAsP quaternary cell with a bandgap of 1.1 mu m with 60 InGaAs QWs has an open circuit voltage of (1.7 +/- 0.1) times that of a homogeneous InGaAs cell under a narrow band ytterbia-like illuminating spectrum. Similar enhancements are observed under an erbia-like illumination and in a broad band illumination approximating a black body at 3000K. The quaternary cell absorbs a similar range of wavelengths close to the InGaAs cell. Also, better temperature coefficients for the QWSC than the control cell are observed in a spectrum approximating a black body at 3000K. A comparison is made between the QWSC and two other cells, one InGaAs and one Si, using published spectral response and illuminated current/voltage data. It is shown that whilst InGaAs has a higher power output in black body spectra and Si a higher power output in an ideal ytterbia spectra the QWSC has the highest output in a combination of 2000K black body and ytterbia spectra where 56% of the power output is in the ytterbia emission band. Possible improvements to this non-optimised QWSC are discussed.