QUANTUM WELL SOLAR CELL

Abstract

The quantum well solar cell (QWSC) is a p - i - n solar cell with quantum wells embedded in the intrinsic region. Previous work has shown that QWSCs have a greater open circuit voltage (Voc) than would be provided by a cell with the quantum well effective bandgap. This suggests that the fundamental efficiency limits of QWSCs are greater than those of single bandgap solar cells. The following work investigates quantum well solar cell in the AlGaAs/GaAs as materials system. This work consists of the calculation of Effective density of States, generation rate and carrier concentration inside the quantum wells with the help of MATLAB and Simulation Software (SimWindows), followed by solving current continuity equation analytically for multiple quantum wells. After that, we have calculated short circuit current and open circuit voltage of the quantum well solar cell and compared with the reported results. Finally, we have qualitatively studied the effect of barrier thickness on carrier transport inside the quantum well by Monte Carlo Simulation.