THIN MULTI JUNCTION SOLAR CELLS OF III-V MATERIALS TO ADVANCE SOLAR ENERGY HARVESTING

Significant advancements in photovoltaic solar cells are required to support large-scale energy demands with solar power. The first generation of solar cells (SC) available today uses Si. While Si is highly abundant and these types of SC can be easily manufactured, the best power conversion efficiency is only 24%. Developing photovoltaic SC using III-V materials may increase the efficiency while decreasing the manufacturing costs associated with cell fabrication. This paper studies the opportunity to improve two-junctions solar cells made of III-V materials by making the layers very thin and including the antireflective layer in the first junction. In terms of light harvesting, the anti-reflective layer made of a semiconductor is shown to absorb the most part of the incident light.