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III–V-on-silicon solar cells reaching 33% photoconversion efficiency in two-terminal configuration

Nature Energy volume 3, pages 326–333 (2018)Cite this article

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An Author Correction to this article was published on 25 June 2018

An Author Correction to this article was published on 03 May 2018

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Abstract

Silicon dominates the photovoltaic industry but the conversion efficiency of silicon single-junction solar cells is intrinsically constrained to 29.4%, and practically limited to around 27%. It is possible to overcome this limit by combining silicon with high-bandgap materials, such as III–V semiconductors, in a multi-junction device. Significant challenges associated with this material combination have hindered the development of highly efficient III–V/Si solar cells. Here, we demonstrate a III–V/Si cell reaching similar performances to standard III–V/Ge triple-junction solar cells. This device is fabricated using wafer bonding to permanently join a GaInP/GaAs top cell with a silicon bottom cell. The key issues of III–V/Si interface recombination and silicon's weak absorption are addressed using poly-silicon/SiOx passivating contacts and a novel rear-side diffraction grating for the silicon bottom cell. With these combined features, we demonstrate a two-terminal GaInP/GaAs//Si solar cell reaching a 1-sun AM1.5G conversion efficiency of 33.3%.

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Fig. 1: Structure of the two-terminal wafer-bonded III–V//Si triple-junction cell.
Fig. 2: Characteristics of the III–V//Si wafer-bonded interface.
Fig. 3: Performance and statistics of GaInP/GaAs//Si cells without light trapping.
Fig. 4: Enhancing the infrared response of silicon with a photonic light-trapping structure.
Fig. 5: Performance of the best two-terminal III–V//Si cell with passivating contacts and a photonic light-trapping structure.
Fig. 6: Benchmarking of two-terminal III–V//Si cell subcell Voc and spectrum utilization plot.

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Change history

  • 25 June 2018

    In the version of this Article originally published, in the ‘Rear-side light trapping’ paragraph of the Methods section, the values of depth and fill factor were incorrectly given as 350 nm and 50%, respectively; instead, the values should have read 250 nm and 60%. This has now been corrected.

  • 03 May 2018

    In the version of this Article originally published, in the legend in Fig. 5a, the blue, green and red lines were incorrectly labelled as GaAs, Si and GaInP, respectively; instead, the labels should have read, respectively, GaInP, GaAs and Si. This has now been corrected.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Fraunhofer ISE employees E. Oliva, A. Schütte, R. Koch, M. Graf, E. Schäffer, M. Schachtner, E. Fehrenbacher, A. Wekkeli, K. Wagner, S. Stättner, R. Freitas, A. Lösel, A. Leimenstoll, F. Schätzle and V. Klinger for helping with device processing and characterization. We also thank T. Höche and C. Patzig from Fraunhofer IMWS for the TEM studies. We further acknowledge financial support through the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie HISTORIC grant agreement no. 655272 and the German Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy through the project PoTaSi (no. 0324247). The development of the Si bottom cell received funding through the EU project NanoTandem under grant agreement no. 641023. This article reflects only the authors' view and the funding agency is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

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  1. Romain Cariou

    Present address: Université Grenoble Alpes, CEA, LITEN, INES, Grenoble, France

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, Freiburg, Germany

    Romain Cariou, Jan Benick, Frank Feldmann, Oliver Höhn, Hubert Hauser, Paul Beutel, Benedikt Bläsi, David Lackner, Martin Hermle, Gerald Siefer, Stefan W. Glunz, Andreas W. Bett & Frank Dimroth

  2. Laboratory for Photovoltaic Energy Conversion, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

    Frank Feldmann & Stefan W. Glunz

  3. EV Group E. Thallner GmbH, St Florian am Inn, Austria

    Nasser Razek & Markus Wimplinger

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Contributions

R.C. carried out experiments in the laboratory, theoretical modelling and evaluation of the data; R.C. and J.B. led the process development and optimization. F.F., M.H. and S.W.G. developed the passivating and carrier-selective contact Si bottom cell; S.W.G. also performed the analysis of spectrum utilization in Fig. 5d. P.B. improved the III–V layer structure and performed the epitaxy growth. D.L. performed band structure simulations and coordinated the epitaxy research. N.R. performed the wafer bonding and coordinated the TEM analysis; M.W. supervised the wafer bonding collaboration and led the design of the EVG580 ComBond cluster tool. O.H. and H.H. proposed the idea of the specific rear-side diffraction grating and developed and fabricated the crossed grating together. B.B. supported the understanding and fine-tuning of the rear-side grating and coordinated the photonic light-trapping research. G.S. supervised the cell calibration and ensured the accuracy of the measurements. A.W.B. supported discussions and editing of the manuscript and F.D. developed the concept of two-terminal III–V//Si tandem cells by direct wafer bonding and contributed to many aspects of the cell design and process optimization. All co-authors participated in the discussions and improvements of this manuscript.

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Correspondence to Romain Cariou.

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Competing interests

The authors N. Razek and M. Wimplinger are employed by EV Group E. Thallner GmbH, 4782 St Florian am Inn, Austria, which produces the wafer bonding machine used in this study.

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Cariou, R., Benick, J., Feldmann, F. et al. III–V-on-silicon solar cells reaching 33% photoconversion efficiency in two-terminal configuration. Nat Energy 3, 326–333 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-018-0125-0

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