Photocurrent enhancement in GaPNAs-based solar cells with Si nanowire array substrate

Abstract

A numerical simulation of GaPNAs-based solar cells deposited on silicon nanowire (NW) array was done. It is shown that single-junction solar cell consisting of GaPNAs-based p-i-n junction with a band gap of 1.78 eV and minority charge carrier lifetime in i-layer of 0.1 ns on Si-based NW template can reach short-circuit current values of 16.5 mA/cm2 and efficiency of 11.8% under AM1.5D 100 mW/cm2. The influence of the i-layer thickness, minority carrier lifetime and NW length on solar cell's characteristics was shown.