Photovoltaic Technology - III-V for Concentrator PV

III-V solar cell technology for concentrator PV systems is a technology that originally came out of triple junction III-V solar cells used in space applications where concentrators are not used.  Cells for both applications, terrestrial concentrators and space, are designed to optimize conversion efficiency by collecting a broad range of the solar spectrum.  Because the III-V alloy composition determines its energy band gap and many III-V alloys can be grown epitaxially on each other, a stack of multiple layers of different bandgaps can be manufactured.    

The main area for improvement of III-V thin film PV is increased conversion efficiency for concentrator PV systems, and manufacturing scale up.

The schematic of the III-V Thin Film PV device structure (below) illustrates some of the ways surface analysis can help. Please move your mouse over the boxes below for more information or click here and download the application discussion.

Additional Information

• III-V Application Discussion
• Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS) Technique Note TN103
• Time-of-Flight SIMS (TOF-SIMS) Technique Note TN104
• X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) Technique Note TN100
• Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy (STEM) Technique Note TN110
• Analysis of Contaminants by DHS/GC/MS AN385
• FEI DualBeamTM830 FIB AN364
• High Depth Resolution SIMS Profiles for Compound Semiconductor Devices AN374
• Organic Contamination on Surfaces AN378
• SIMS Quantification for Compound Semiconductors AN372
• Characterization of Surface Contamination BN1365