Study of hole-blocking and electron-blocking layers in a InaS/GaAs multiple quantum-well solar cell

Abstract

In this work, a GaAs-based quantum well solar cell with a 25-layer InAs/GaAs intermediate layer is simulated in Silvaco Atlas TCAD software. In order to reduce the recombination caused by the presence of the quantum layers and increase the absorption of photons, electron blocking layers (EBLs) and hole blocking layers (HBLs) have been added to the solar cell in an In0.5(Al0.7Ga0.3)0.5P semiconductor. The results show that the efficiency of the proposed solar cell increases 17.38% by obtaining impurity the thickness and doping of the EBL and HBL layers. It can be concluded that the use of the In0.5(Al0.7Ga 0.3)0.5P semiconductor with EBL and HBL layers decreases the open circuit voltage (Voc) caused in the quantum wells. The efficiency of the proposed solar cell with EBL and HBL layers was found to be 44.65%.