Nanostructures in III-V solar cells
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- From the physics and materials viewpoint, III-V materials are ideal for highly efficient photovoltaic conversion. Their major limitations are cost and resource availability. As industrial planar III-V solar cells continue to set the all-time efficiency records, nanostructured III-V solar cells are now being investigated in academia with the goal to further improve the efficiency and lower the required materials volume and cost. However, most previously investigated nano-structured solar cells suffer from low efficiencies. In this dissertation, I first present optical enhancement in nanopyramid III-V ultra-thin films which can potentially reduce the required materials by one order of magnitude. I then demonstrate significant efficiency improvement in GaAs solar cell. Especially, with an AlGaAs nanocone window layer, a 17%-efficiency nanostructured single-junction solar cell is obtained. The first part of my dissertation focuses on optical engineering and absorption improvement in nanopyramid GaAs ultra-thin film. I demonstrate a double-sided nanopyramid GaAs film that is only 160 nm thick, laminated in a flexible transparent superstrate. Without additional antireflection coatings, this nanopyramid film absorbs over 80% more photons than a planar counterpart with equal thickness at normal incidence and is equivalent to a 1um thick film. At large incident angles, this enhancement can be even greater. With similar light trapping design, III-V solar cell film thickness can be potentially reduced from 3-4 um to 200-300 nm, which could significantly reduce III-V cell cost. The second part of my dissertation focuses on efficiency improvement in III-V nanostructured solar cells. First, GaAs solar cell efficiency enhancement using ZnO nanoparticle antireflection coating is briefly demonstrated. I then demonstrate our work on nanostructured p-n junction solar cells and discuss the challenges for nanostructured solar cell. After this, I propose a nanowindow solar cell design that can overcome these challenges by enhancing both optical and electrical properties. A nanowindow solar cell using a nanocone AlGaAs window layer, a GaAs junction and mesa grid contact is demonstrated with a high energy conversion efficiency of 17.0% and high open circuit voltage of 0.982 V.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2013 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Liang, Dong |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Physics. |
| Primary advisor | Harris, J. S. (James Stewart), 1942- |
| Thesis advisor | Harris, J. S. (James Stewart), 1942- |
| Thesis advisor | Cui, Yi, 1976- |
| Thesis advisor | Fan, Shanhui, 1972- |
| Thesis advisor | Hollberg, Leo (Leo William) |
| Advisor | Cui, Yi, 1976- |
| Advisor | Fan, Shanhui, 1972- |
| Advisor | Hollberg, Leo (Leo William) |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Dong Liang. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Physics. |
| Thesis | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2013. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2013 by Dong Liang
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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