Net efficiency gain without open-circuit-voltage loss in GaAs nanowire/InAs quantum-dot hybrid array solar cells

Coupled optoelectronic simulations (Wu et al., 2018) showed that growing multilayer InAs quantum dots on the sidewalls of a GaAs nanowire array extends the absorption spectrum to 950 nm and produces an efficiency enhancement six times larger than a thin film containing the same quantum-dot volume — yet the gain is capped at 0.45–0.67% absolute because recombination in the quantum-dot layers degrades the open-circuit voltage. The open problem is to convert this optical advantage into a practically meaningful net efficiency gain: suppress or recover the quantum-dot-induced $V_{oc}$ loss, and optimize quantum-dot size, size distribution, and areal density for stronger sub-bandgap absorption without a proportional recombination increase. No experimental GaAs/InAs nanowire/quantum-dot hybrid solar cell device has been reported, and the photocurrent-versus-voltage trade-off remains unresolved.

Background

A semiconductor quantum dot (QD) is a nanoscale island of a narrower-gap material inside a wider-gap host, small enough that carriers are confined in all three dimensions and occupy discrete energy levels; in a solar cell, such states can absorb photons with energy below the host bandgap, raising the possible photocurrent. This is the basis of the intermediate-band solar cell concept (Luque and Martí, 1997), in which a band of states inside the gap absorbs sub-bandgap photons in two-step transitions. In the III–V material system, InAs QDs form spontaneously on GaAs in the Stranski–Krastanov growth mode: strain drives the deposited layer to break into islands, leaving a thin strained 'wetting layer' between the dots. A persistent obstacle is that the inserted QD and wetting-layer material also adds recombination centers, so the short-circuit current $J_{sc}$ rises while the open-circuit voltage $V_{oc}$ falls; whether the net efficiency improves is a race between the two. Planar InAs/GaAs QD solar cells showed early on that the voltage penalty is not unavoidable: Guimard et al. (2010) obtained enhanced photocurrent without $V_{oc}$ degradation, Bailey et al. (2011) reached a near-1-V $V_{oc}$, and Lam et al. (2014) demonstrated partial voltage recovery when the QDs are charged (charge-state engineering). Separately, vertically aligned semiconductor nanowire (NW) arrays — wires tens to hundreds of nanometers in diameter, arranged periodically — trap light through guided-resonance modes and absorb far more per unit volume than flat films. A radial p–i–n junction, in which the doped core and shell sandwich an intrinsic collector region, is the standard NW photovoltaic geometry because photogenerated carriers need to travel only a radial distance to be collected. Wu et al. (2018) combined the two ideas in coupled simulations: a GaAs NW array with five layers of InAs QDs grown on the NW sidewalls inside the intrinsic region of a radial p–i–n junction, with the QD multilayers treated as an effective medium (a volume-weighted blend of QD, wetting-layer, and GaAs material). Three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain optical simulation followed by finite-element device simulation showed absorption extended to 950 nm and an absolute efficiency enhancement of 0.67% (short NWs) and 0.45% (long NWs), versus 0.11% for a thin film with the same QD volume — the headline 'six times' advantage of the NW geometry. However, radiative recombination rates in the QD layers exceeded those of the plain NW by more than three orders of magnitude, costing about 0.02 V of $V_{oc}$, and the transport model used fixed capture/escape band offsets (100 meV), carrier lifetimes, and mobilities taken from planar-QD literature rather than from measurements of the actual NW/QD structure. The study was purely computational; the structure itself had only been grown for optical studies, never made into a solar cell device.

Problem Statement

Can the optical advantage of the nanowire/quantum-dot hybrid architecture be converted into a practically meaningful net efficiency gain in an actual GaAs/InAs nanowire–quantum-dot hybrid array solar cell? Concretely: demonstrate a GaAs nanowire array solar cell with multilayer InAs quantum dots on the nanowire sidewalls inside the intrinsic region of a radial p–i–n junction, in which the QD layers raise the power conversion efficiency over a matched QD-free nanowire array by an absolute margin exceeding the efficiency enhancement predicted by Wu et al. (2018) for the demonstrated nanowire geometry — at least 0.7% for a 500-nm short-nanowire array or at least 0.5% for a 3000-nm long-nanowire array (one of these two geometries suffices; they are the only lengths for which that study gives a prediction), with the gain resting on transport and recombination parameters measured for the actual nanowire/QD structure rather than assumed from planar-QD literature. Two linked aspects jointly define this single objective: (i) suppress or recover the QD-induced open-circuit-voltage loss, which the source study traced to recombination rates in the QD layers exceeding those of the plain nanowire by more than three orders of magnitude; and (ii) systematically optimize the QD size, size distribution, and areal density so that sub-bandgap absorption (the spectrum extension to roughly 950 nm) increases without a proportional increase in recombination. The net efficiency gain must be obtained with the QD-induced $V_{oc}$ loss suppressed or recovered.

References

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