Improvement of PV performance by using multi-stacked high density InAs quantum dot molecules

InAs quantum dot molecules (QDMs) are prepared by thin-capping-and-regrowth MBE process. The dot density can be varied between 10(10) cm(-2), for asgrown quantum dots (QDs), to 10(12) cm(-2), for multi-stack QDMs. Photocurrent measurements on 1- and 5-stack high-density QDM layers show that these InAs QDMs when embedded inside a GaAs bulk structure extend photon absorption beyond the 850-nm bandedge limited by GaAs. The results also indicate that the higher the number of stacks the higher the resulting current. The presence of high-density QDMs in solar cells thus extends the absorption region and at the same time increase the output current. Electrical characterisations on homojunction (p-n) solar cells with 1- and 5-stack high-density QDMs embedded between the junction show that the 5-stack sample provides a higher short-circuit current density of J(sc) = 14.4 mA/cm(2) compared to 9.6 mA/cm(2) provided by the 1-stack sample. The increase is due entirely to the difference in absorptive dot volume accounted for by the difference in the number of stacks of high-density InAs QDMs. The efficiency of homostructure 5-stack high-density QDM solar cell is 5.1 %.