“Direct” measurement of sheet resistance in inter-subcell layers of multi-junction solar cells

The multi-junction cells are sensitive to chromatic aberrations inherent to the lens-type concentrators. At spectrally and spatially inhomogeneous distribution of incident light, considerable lateral currents flow along the inter-subcell layers causing a voltage drop across corresponding sheet resis...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Rumyantsev, Valery D, Larionov, Valery R, Pokrovskiy, Pavel V
Format: Conference Proceeding
Language:English
Subjects:
Concentrators
Electrical resistivity
Electrodes
Incident light
Lasers
Light
Photovoltaic cells
Solar cells
Voltage drop
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Summary:The multi-junction cells are sensitive to chromatic aberrations inherent to the lens-type concentrators. At spectrally and spatially inhomogeneous distribution of incident light, considerable lateral currents flow along the inter-subcell layers causing a voltage drop across corresponding sheet resistance and, consequently, a decrease in the cell conversion efficiency. The sheet resistance unit is Ohm-per-square that corresponds to the resistance between two bar-type electrodes on the opposite sides of a thin conductive square. A method of “direct” measurement of this parameter is proposed using lasers for local illumination of the strip-in-shape parts of a rectangular-in-form tested cell. These illuminated parts play a role of electrodes for a lateral current induced by photoexitation. Wavelengths of the lasers have to be chosen to generate photocurrents independently in the neighboring subcells, as well as locally in the upper and lower ones. SPICE model of the method is analyzed and experimental results on the InGaP/InGaAs/Ge triple-junction solar cells are presented.
ISSN:0094-243X
1551-7616
DOI:10.1063/1.4931530