Tunnel junctions for multijunction solar cells

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11527667-B2
Application number	US-201815964852-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 27, 2018
Priority date	Apr 27, 2017
Publication date	Dec 13, 2022
Grant date	Dec 13, 2022

Abstract

Tunnel junctions for multijunction solar cells are provided. According to an aspect of the invention, a tunnel junction includes a first layer including p-type AlGaAs, a second layer including n-type GaAs, wherein the second layer is a quantum well, and a third layer including n-type AlGaAs or n-type lattice matched AlGaInP. The quantum well can be GaAs or AlxGaAs with x being more than about 40%, and lattice matched GaInAsNSb in the Eg range of from about 0.8 to about 1.4 eV.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A tunnel junction in a multijunction solar cell comprising, in order:
a first layer comprising p-type AlGaAs;
a second layer comprising n-type GaAs, wherein the second layer is a quantum well; and
a third layer comprising n-type AlGaAs, wherein the concentration of Al in the third layer is at least 50%; and
wherein the second layer and the third layer are doped with Se, Si, Te or any combination thereof at a concentration of from about 1×10 18 cm −3 to about 1×10 20 cm −3 .

2. The tunnel junction of claim 1 , wherein a concentration of Al in the first layer is selected from the group consisting of at least 40%, at least 50%, and at least 60%.

3. The tunnel junction of claim 1 , further comprising additional adjacent layers selected from the group consisting of AlInGaP, AlGaAs, GaAs, GaInP, GaInAsP, InGaAsSb, InGaAsNSb, InP, InGaAs, InAlAs, GaAsSb, AlAsSb, GaInAsSb, and GaInAsP.

4. The tunnel junction of claim 1 , wherein the second layer quantum well is selected from the group consisting of Al x GaAs, or GaInAsNSb wherein x is at less than 40%.

5. The tunnel junction of claim 1 , wherein the thickness of the second layer is from about 1 nm to about 20 nm.

6. The tunnel junction of claim 1 that is operable up to about 1000× sun.

Assignees

• Alliance Sustainable Energy
• The Regents Of The Univ Of California A California Corporation

Inventors

• Jain Nikhil
• Steiner Myles Aaron
• Geisz John Franz
• Perl Emmett Edward
• France Ryan Matthew

Classifications

• Y02E10/544

  Solar cells from Group III-V materials · CPC title

• H01L31/0725 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L31/036

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L31/0735

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L31/0687

  Electricity · mapped topic