Design of semiconductor-based back reflectors for high Voc monolithic multijunction solar cells

Abstract

State-of-the-art multijunction cell designs have the potential for significant improvement before going to higher number of junctions. For example, the Voc can be substantially increased if the photon recycling taking place in the junctions is enhanced. This has already been demonstrated (by Alta Devices) for a GaAs single-junction cell. For this, the loss of re-emitted photons by absorption in the underlying layers or substrate must be minimized. Selective back surface reflectors are needed for this purpose. In this work, different architectures of semiconductor distributed Bragg reflectors (DBR) are assessed as the appropriate choice for application in monolithic multijunction solar cells. Since the photon re-emission in the photon recycling process is spatially isotropic, the effect of the incident angle on the reflectance spectrum is of central importance. In addition, the DBR structure must be designed taking into account its integration into the monolithic multijunction solar cells, concerning series resistance, growth economics, and other issues. We analyze the tradeoffs in DBR design complexity with all these requirements to determine if such a reflector is suitable to improve multijunction solar cells.