High-Efficiency GaAs Solar Cell Optimization by Theoretical Simulation

Theoretical simulations of solar cell current-voltage characteristics provide important information for a better design of the device structure, such as layers thicknesses and doping levels, in order to obtain high photovoltaic conversion efficiency. The inclusion of precise material parameters is critical to obtain reliable results and detailed understanding of the simulated device operation. In this study, GaAs solar cell structures were simulated by drift-diffusion model with SCAPS-1D in order to optimize the performance under 1 sun illumination. Moreover, we used the published results of some devices as references to infer their structures, as the details are normally not completely disclosed by the authors. To do so, an optimization study was required to probe different materials, thicknesses and doping levels for the layers. With the inferred structure, it was possible to evaluate the possibility of improvements through variation of the structure parameters to achieve even higher efficiencies.