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Simulation study of an optimized current matching for In0.39Ga0.61N/In0.57Ga0.43N/In0.74Ga0.26N triple-junction solar cells

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This paper deals with the design and optimization of a triple-junction (TJ) solar cell using indium gallium nitride (InGaN) material. Two tunnel diodes are used to ensure connection between the different subcells. A comprehensive study is performed by means of 2D numerical simulations to locate the best bandgap combination that leads to an optimized current matching. During the simulations, the doping concentration and the base thickness are considered as fitting parameters for the top and the middle subcells. The In0.39Ga0.61N/In0.57Ga0.43N/In0.74Ga0.26N bandgap combination is supposed to be 2.02 eV/1.52 eV/1.13 eV. A high short-circuit current density (13.313 mA/cm2) is achieved by assuming a base thickness of 1 µm for each subcell and a p/n doping ratio of 5 × 1018 cm−3/5 × 1015 cm−3 in the top cell, 1.5 × 1019 cm−3/1.5 × 1016 cm−3 in the middle cell, and 7.5 × 1018 cm−3/7.5 × 1015 cm−3 in the bottom cell. The optimized structure has an improved open-circuit voltage (2.877 V), fill factor (83%), and conversion efficiency (33.11%).

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the DGRSDT of the Ministry of Higher education of Algeria.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Metallic and Semiconductor Materials, University of Biskra, P.B. 145, 07000, Biskra, Algeria

    Y. Marouf, L. Dehimi & H. Bencherif

  2. Faculty of Material Science, University of Batna1, 05000, Batna, Algeria

    L. Dehimi

  3. DIIES – University of Reggio Calabria, Loc. Feo di Vito, 89100, Reggio Calabria, Italy

    F. Pezzimenti

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Appendix A. List of symbols

Appendix A. List of symbols

Symbol

Notation

\({Aug}_{n,p}\)

Auger coefficients

\({C}_{\rm opt}\)

Radiative coefficient

\({D}_{n}, {D}_{p}\)

Diffusion coefficient

\({d}_{\rm Top,Mid,Bot}\)

Thickness of the top, middle, and bottom subcells

\({E}_{d, a}\)

Energy level for donors and acceptors

\({E}_{g}\)

Material bandgap

\({E}_{ph}\)

Incoming photon energy

\(E{\rm trap}\)

Energy value between the trap energy level and the intrinsic Fermi level

\({E}_{fl}^{e,h}, {E}_{fr}^{e,h}\)

Quasi-Fermi levels for electrons and holes

\({g}_{d, a}\)

Degeneracy factors

\(I\left(\lambda \right)\)

Wavelength dependent photons flux density

\({I}_{0}\)

Reverse saturation current density

\({I}_{\rm src}\)

Source photocurrent

\({J}_{\rm sc}^{\rm Top, Mid, Bot}\)

Short circuit current density for the top, middle, and bottom subcells

\({k}_{\rm B}\)

Boltzmann constant

\({L}_{n}, {L}_{p}\)

Diffusion length

\({m}_{0}\)

Carrier rest mass

\({m}_{e}{, m}_{h}\)

Electron and hole effective masses

\(N\)

Total doping concentration

\({N}_{\rm c}, {N}_{v}\)

Electron and hole density of states in the conduction and the valence bands

\({N}_{d,a}\)

Doping densities

\({N}_{n,p}^{\rm crit}\)

Mean mobility value between the minimum and the maximum

\({P}_{\rm B}\)

Incident beam power density

\(q\)

Electron charge

\({S}_{n}, {S}_{p}\)

Surface recombination velocity in n- and p-type regions

\(T\)

Temperature

\(T\left(E\right)\)

Probability of tunneling phenomena

\({V}_{\rm oc}^{\rm Top, Mid, Bot}\)

Open-circuit voltage for the top, middle, and bottom subcells

\({W}_{\rm B}\)

Beam width clipped to the device

\({x}_{beg}, {x}_{\rm end}\)

Beginning and ending of the tunneling path calculated for each value of E

\({x}_{n}, {x}_{p}\)

Layer thickness

\(\alpha , \beta , \gamma\)

Fitting coefficients

\({\alpha }_{\rm Top,Mid,Bot}\)

Absorption coefficient for the top, middle, and bottom subcells

\(\lambda\)

Wavelength

\({\lambda }_{\rm Beg}\)

Solar spectrum beginning wavelength

\({\lambda }_{\rm Top,Mid,Bot}\)

Cutoff wavelength for the top, middle, and bottom subcells

\({\tau }_{n}, {\tau }_{p}\)

Minority carrier lifetimes

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Marouf, Y., Dehimi, L., Pezzimenti, F. et al. Simulation study of an optimized current matching for In0.39Ga0.61N/In0.57Ga0.43N/In0.74Ga0.26N triple-junction solar cells. J Comput Electron 20, 1296–1309 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10825-021-01695-7

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