Modeling and simulation of InAs/GaAs quantum dot solar cells in SILVACO TCAD

Conversion efficiency is now the major concern of solar cells industry, especially in applications of satellites and spacecraft in space. Currently, quantum dot solar cells are one of the most active research fields in the third generation solar cells. Here, we use Silvaco TCAD software for modeling and simulation of both standard GaAs solar cell and InAs/GaAs quantum dot solar cell. All the simulation results are compared with experimental measurement data [1, 2] of fabricated solar cell chips. In simulation, when comparing 40-layer InAs/GaAs quantum dot solar cell with standard GaAs solar cell, the conversion efficiency in simulation results increased from 14.1% to 18.6%, which is relatively 31.5% improvement. Also, the absorption range edge of photons with low energies extended from 875 nm to 1200 nm. Therefore, the positive effects of embedded quantum dots are proved to be helpful in improving solar cell's performance.