Numerical investigation of Shockley–Read–Hall current density in InGaN/GaN multiple-quantum-well solar cells under temperature and hydrostatic pressure

Abstract

In this study, a numerical model was used to analyze the non-radiative Shockley–Read–Hall (SRH) current density in InGaN/GaN multiple-quantum-well solar cells (MQWSC) under temperature and hydrostatic pressure. Finite difference techniques were employed to acquire energy eigenvalues and their corresponding eigenfunctions of \({\text{InGaN/GaN}}\) MQWLSC, followed by calculating the hole eigenstates via a k.p method. Our results revealed that a change in temperature up to 300 K could increase the electron, hole, and equal capture coefficients in the quantum well. Moreover, this temperature change increased the radius of point defects, the longitudinal optical (LO) phonon scattering integral, the SRH coefficient, and current in MQW regions while decreasing the LO phonon energy. Accordingly, these parameters had a reverse behavior when increasing hydrostatic pressure compared to when increasing temperature. It was further found that the Huang-Rhys factor of light holes and the splitting of band holes had the highest contributions to hole capture coefficients. Overall, SCs demonstrated better performance compared to when the SRH current was lower, suggesting that temperature and hydrostatic pressure have both negative and positive impacts on the performance of these SCs.