Observation of photon recycling in strain-balanced quantum well solar cells

D. Johnson , I. Ballard (1) , A. Bessière (2) , K. Barnham (1) , J.P. Connolly (3) , M. Mazzer (1) , C. Calder (4) , G. Hill (4) , J.S. Roberts (4)

1 Blackett Laboratory
2 Chimie ParisTech (ENSCP)
3 GeePs - Laboratoire Génie électrique et électronique de Paris
4 EPSRC - National Centre for III-V Technologies

Photon recycling in strain balanced quantum well solar cells grown on distributed Bragg reflectors has been observed as a suppression of the dark current and a change in electroluminescence spectra. Comparing devices grown with and without distributed Bragg reflectors we have demonstrated up to a 33% reduction in the ideality n = 1 reverse saturation current. Furthermore, to validate the observations we demonstrate how both the measured dark currents and electroluminescence spectra fit very well to a photon recycling model. Verifying our observations with the model then allows us to calculate optimised device designs.

Domaines: Physique [physics]

D. Johnson, I. Ballard, A. Bessière, K. Barnham, J.P. Connolly, et al.. Observation of photon recycling in strain-balanced quantum well solar cells. Applied Physics Letters, 2007, 90 (21), pp.213505. ⟨10.1063/1.2742334⟩. ⟨hal-02927569⟩