Theoretical and experimental study of polycrystalline GaAs MIS solar cell

Abstract

In order to understand the photovoltaic effect in polycyrstalline GaAs MIS solar cells, we have studied the grain boundary problem. The grain boundary region width is assumed to be very small compared to the width of the depletion region. The mechanism for current conduction is tunneling through the insulator of a polycrystalline MIS diode. Theoretical investigation on the device parameters as a function of grain size of the crystallites and some preliminary experimental results on polycrystalline GaAs MIS solar cells are presented.