Performance Comparison of Narrow Bandgap Semiconductor Cells for Photovoltaic and Thermophotovoltaic Applications

Abstract

Narrow bandgap (NB) materials provide better potential for infrared radiation conversion to electricity from solar or various thermophotovoltaic (TPV) spectrums. Different NB materials generate diverse output performance depending on the properties of materials crystal and cell configuration. Decreasing the bandgap of the materials will improve the collection of longer wavelength photons, but that tends to increase the recombination rate and reduce cell efficiency $(\eta)$. This paper investigates the performance of NB cells. Silvaco TCAD software was used to simulate the output performance of germanium (Ge), indium arsenide (InAs), gallium antimonide (GaSb), and indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs) cells under solar spectrum AM1.5 and 1000 K illumination spectrums. It was found that InGaAs is the most outstanding material for photovoltaic (PV) application and TPV application at 1000 K radiation temperature. The comparative study and conclusion drawn in this work highlight several limitations in NB cells configuration, such as the high surface recombination rate in GaSb and InAs TPV cell, which reduces photocurrent collection.