High performance solar cells based on graphene-GaAs heterostructures

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates high-efficiency graphene/GaAs heterostructure solar cells with potential for practical use, achieving up to 15.5% efficiency and predicting further improvements through optimization.

Contribution

It introduces the first high-performance graphene/GaAs solar cells and shows their efficiency surpasses graphene/silicon systems, highlighting their practical potential.

Findings

Achieved 15.5% efficiency with anti-reflection layer

Efficiency exceeds previous graphene/Si systems

Predicted efficiency up to 25.8% with optimization

Abstract

The honeycomb connection of carbon atoms by covalent bonds in a macroscopic two-dimensional scale leads to fascinating graphene and solar cell based on graphene/silicon Schottky diode has been widely studied. For solar cell applications, GaAs is superior to silicon as it has a direct band gap of 1.42 eV and its electron mobility is six times of that of silicon. However, graphene/GaAs solar cell has been rarely explored. Herein, we report graphene/GaAs solar cells with conversion efficiency (Eta) of 10.4% and 15.5% without and with anti-reflection layer on graphene, respectively. The Eta of 15.5% is higher than the state of art efficiency for graphene/Si system (14.5%). Furthermore, our calculation points out Eta of 25.8% can be reached by reasonably optimizing the open circuit voltage, junction ideality factor, resistance of graphene and metal/graphene contact. This research strongly support graphene/GaAs hetero-structure solar cell have great potential for practical applications.