Analytical-Numerical Modeling of Thermalization Loss in the InGaAs Quantum Wire Solar Cells

Thermalization loss in a structure of solar cell where an intermediate band (IB) is introduced by embedding a stack of hexagonal InxGa1-xAs quantum wires (QW) in the intrinsic layer of p-i-n GaAs solar cell is calculated by a theoretical framework based on the principle of detailed balance approach. To obtain the position of IB, a finite element method is used for solving Schrodinger equation to calculate possible energy band configurations of GaAs: barrier/InxGa1-xAs: hexagonal QW. Then, the effect of indium content of QWs, the size and period of QWs on thermalization loss is investigated. The results show that there is a fundamental limitation of similar to 35% for thermalization loss in achieving ultra-high efficiency QW-IBSCs.