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Martin-Martin, DiegoAuthor
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Advanced Characterization of 1 eV GaInAs Inverted Metamorphic Solar Cells

Publicated to:Energies. 16 (14): 5367- - 2023-07-01 16(14), DOI: 10.3390/en16145367

Authors: Galiana, Beatriz; Navarro, Amalia; Hinojosa, Manuel; Garcia, Ivan; Martin-Martin, Diego; Jimenez, Juan; Garcia-Tabares, Elisa

Affiliations

Univ Carlos III Madrid UC3M, Phys Dept, Av Univ 40, Leganes 28911, Spain - Author
Univ Politecn Madrid IES UPM, Solar Energy Inst, Av Complutense S-N, Madrid 28040, Spain - Author
Univ Rey Juan Carlos, Dept 2, C Tulipan S-N, Mostoles 28933, Spain - Author
Univ Valladolid UVA, GdS Optronlab, Paseo Belen 11, Valladolid 47011, Spain - Author

Abstract

In this work, 1 eV Ga0.7In0.3As inverted metamorphic (IMM) solar cells were analyzed to achieve a deeper understanding of the mechanism limiting their improvement. For this purpose, high-resolution X-ray diffraction (HRXRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), high-resolution cross-sectional cathodoluminescence (CL), and transient in situ surface reflectance were carried out. Additionally, the photovoltaic responses of the complete devices were measured using the external quantum efficiency (EQE) and numerically simulated through Silvaco TCAD ATLAS. The combination of structural characterization of the semiconductor layers and measurements of the solar cell photovoltaic behavior, together with device modeling, allows us to conclude that the lifetime of the bulk minority carriers is the limiting factor influencing the PV response since the recombination at the interfaces (GaInP window-GaInAs emitter and GaInAs base-GaInP back surface field (BSF)) does not impact the carrier recombination due to the favorable alignment between the conduction and the valance bands. The advanced characterization using cross-sectional cathodoluminescence, together with transient in situ surface reflectance, allowed the rejection of the formation of traps related to the GaInAs growth conditions as being responsible for the decrement in the minority-carrier lifetime. Conversely, the TEM and HRXRD revealed that the presence of misfit dislocations in the GaInAs layer linked to strain relaxation, which were probably formed due to an excessive tensile strain in the virtual substrate or an incorrect combination of alloy compositions in the topmost layers, was the dominant factor influencing the GaInAs layer's quality. These results allow an understanding of the contributions of each characterization technique in the analysis of multi-junction solar cells.

Keywords
Carrier lifetimeCathodoluminescenceCell-beCell/b.eCell/beGallium alloysGrowthHigh resolutionHigh resolution transmission electron microscopyHigh resolution xray diffraction (xrd)High-resolution cross-sectional cathodoluminescenceHigh-resolution cross-sectional cathodoluminescence (cl)Iii-v semiconductorsIii/v semiconductorsIndium alloysInverted metamorphic solar cellInverted metamorphic solar cellsPhotovoltaic effectsReflectionSemiconductor alloysSemiconductor junctionsSurface reflectanceTransmission electron microscopyTransmission electron microscopy (tem)TransmissionsX ray diffraction analysis

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Energies due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency Scopus (SJR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2023, it was in position , thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Engineering (Miscellaneous).

Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-04-24:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 7.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 6 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 0.5.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 1 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.