Two-junction photovoltaic devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11777047-B2
Application number	US-202217664085-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 19, 2022
Priority date	Feb 8, 2018
Publication date	Oct 3, 2023
Grant date	Oct 3, 2023

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a photovoltaic (PV) device that includes a first junction constructed with a first alloy and having a bandgap between about 1.0 eV and about 1.5 eV, and a second junction constructed with a second alloy and having a bandgap between about 0.9 eV and about 1.3 eV, where the first alloy includes III-V elements, the second alloy includes III-V elements, and the PV device is configured to operate in a thermophotovoltaic system having an operating temperature between about 1500° C. and about 3000° C.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A two junction thermophotovoltaic (TPV) device comprising, in order:
a first junction having a first composition comprising Al x Ga y In 1-x-y As or Ga a In 1-a As b P 1-b ;
a tunnel junction having a second composition comprising at least one of GaInAs or GaAsSb; and
a second junction having a third composition comprising Ga c In 1-c As, wherein:
the first junction has a bandgap between 1.1 eV and 1.4 eV,
the second junction has a bandgap between 0.9 eV and 1.2 eV,
0.05≤ x≤ 0.25,

0.45≤ y≤ 0.65,

0.40≤ a≤ 0.60,

0.45≤ b≤ 0.70,

0.60≤ c≤ 0.80, and

the TPV device is configured to absorb light from a blackbody operating at a temperature, T w , between 1500° C. and 3000° C.

2. The two junction TPV device of claim 1 , wherein the first composition is substantially equal to Al 0.15 Ga 0.55 In 0.3 As or Ga 0.5 In 0.5 As 0.57 P 0.43 .

3. The two junction TPV device of claim 1 , wherein the third composition is substantially equal to Ga 0.7 In 0.3 As.

4. The two junction TPV device of claim 1 , wherein T w is between 1900° C. and 2400° C.

5. The two junction TPV device of claim 1 , further comprising:
a substrate comprising at least one of GaAs or Ge, wherein:
the first junction is positioned between the substrate and the tunnel junction.

6. The two junction TPV device of claim 5 , further comprising:
a buffer layer having a fourth composition comprising Ga w In 1-w P or Al u Ga v In 1-u-v As, wherein:
0.20≤ w≤ 0.51,

0.15 ≤u≤ 0.70,
0.25≤ v≤ 0.60, and

the buffer layer is positioned between the substrate and the first junction.

7. The two junction TPV device of claim 6 , wherein:
the buffer layer is a compositionally graded buffer (CGF) layer,
the CGF layer comprising between 2 and 15 graded layers,
each graded layer comprises the fourth composition, and
the graded layer adjacent to the first junction is lattice-matched to the first junction.

8. The two junction TPV device of claim 1 , wherein the first junction and second junction each have a lattice constant of about 5.78 Å.

9. The two junction TPV device of claim 1 , wherein the first junction, the second junction, and the tunnel junction are substantially lattice matched.

Assignees

• Alliance Sustainable Energy
• Georgia Tech Res Inst

Inventors

• Steiner Myles Aaron
• Friedman Daniel Joseph
• France Ryan Matthew
• Henry Asegun

Classifications

• H10F71/139

  using temporary substrates · CPC title

• H10F10/161

  comprising multiple PN heterojunctions, e.g. tandem cells · CPC title

• H10F10/163 Primary

  comprising only Group III-V materials, e.g. GaAs/AlGaAs or InP/GaInAs photovoltaic cells · CPC title

• H01L31/0735 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L31/0725

  Electricity · mapped topic