Effect of piezoelectric field on carrier dynamics in InGaN-based solar cells

To understand the effect of piezoelectric fields on carrier dynamics, we numerically investigated a simple p-GaN/i-InxGa1-xN/n-GaN solar cell structure. A reliable simulation model was obtained by comparing the experimental and simulated results in advance. The same p-i-n InGaN structures were re-simulated with and without the piezoelectric field effect, as spontaneous polarization remained unchanged. The sample with the piezoelectric field effect showed higher short current density (J(sc)), a staircase-like feature in its I-V curve, and higher open circuit voltage (V-oc) with a lower fill factor (F.F.) and reduced conversion efficiency (C.E.) than the sample with no piezoelectric fields. In addition, with increasing In fraction (x), the V-oc value gradually increased while the J(sc) value significantly decreased, correspondingly leading to a reduction in C.E. and F.F. values of the structure with the piezoelectric field effect. To solve the current loss problem, we applied various piezoelectric field elimination techniques to the simulated structures.