Temperature-dependent GaSb material parameters for reliable thermophotovoltaic cell modelling

Abstract

GaSb photovoltaic cells are the most common choice for receivers in thermophotovoltaic (TPV) systems. Although nowadays their manufacturing technology is well established, a theoretical simulation frame for their modelling under real TPV operating conditions is still not fully developed. This is basically due to the lack of a reliable and accurate set of GaSb material parameters as input for the semiconductor simulation tools. Thorough GaSb TPV cell models are needed to understand the electro-optical behaviour of the cells and eventually are essential in improving their design. This work will try to go beyond this key issue, carefully analysing and reviewing some of the key parameters for GaSb. A complete set of material parameters, including revised values for the intrinsic concentration, the electron and hole mobilities and the absorption coefficient, is given based on extended reviews of previously published data. For the first time, estimations for their temperature dependences are introduced. Finally, GaSb TPV cells are manufactured and characterized inside a real TPV system prototype. The comparisons between the electrical measurements and the model theoretical predictions confirm the validity of the proposed set of GaSb material parameters and their temperature dependences.

Electrical properties of n-type GaSb substrates and p-type GaSb buffer layers for InAs/InGaSb superlattice infrared detectors

“…The channel with the higher concentration and lower mobility is attributed to the L band. The lower mobility of the L band is consistent with calculations of the effective masses of the two channels (m* G = 0.041 and m* L = 0.67) 15 but the fact that the L band has significantly higher concentration requires explanation even though these results agree FIG. 3.…”

“…Ivanov et al 20 and Johnson et al 21 are representative of what has been reported for epitaxial GaSb on semi-insulating GaAs substrates. Ivanov et al reported 77 K hole concentrations and mobilities of 1.1x10 16 to 1.5x10 16 cm −3 and 2700 to 4580 cm 2 /Vs while Johnson et al reported 1.5x10 15 to 8x10 15 cm −3 and 756 to 310 cm 2 /Vs at that temperature, to which our values in Table II, 1x10 15 to 2x10 16 cm −3 and 3000 to 7000 cm 2 /Vs, compare favorably.…”

“…The higher concentration in the L band at high temperatures is most likely due to the higher density of state in that band compared to the Γ band. 15 The concentrations in Fig. 2 are in areal units (cm −2 ) because that is the output of the multicarrier analysis.…”

Development of Quantum Dot-Mediated Fluorescence Thermometry for Thermal Therapies

“…The temperature-dependent luminescence of QD and/or QD-associated materials have been reported. 16,21,28,30,33 Many of these studies investigated the luminescence spectra at various temperatures, especially below 300 K, and found that the luminescence characteristics including emission wavelength and intensity are changing with temperatures. The decreased QD fluorescence intensity at elevated temperatures is attributed to the thermally induced redistribution of electrons at excited energy levels which results in high nonradiative transition rates from the excited energy levels to the ground level.…”

Numerical analysis of the short-circuit current density in GaInAsSb thermophotovoltaic diodes

“…The internal spectral response (SR Int (k)), therefore J sc , is affected by the TPV diode parameters such as the absorption coefficient (a), minority carrier mobility and recombination lifetime, surface or interface recombination velocities (S) and thickness (d) of the absorption layer and the reflectance of back surface reflector (BSR). In this work, the absorption coefficient of GaInAsSb alloy is calculated using Adachi's model [8,9], the carrier mobility is calculated using Caughey-Thomas model [10][11][12][13] and the recombination rates for the main recombination mechanisms (e.g. the radiative, Auger, and Shockley-Read-Hall recombination) are calculated by some semi-empirical formulas.…”