Abstract
One of the promising methods to enhance the performance of third generation solar cells is to use compositionally graded layers. The aim of this paper is to study the effect of fully graded AlGaAs solar cells using numerical simulation with SCAPS 1D. The gradient is simultaneously in the composition and in doping concentration. To attain this goal, we have optimized the standard p-i-n device in first step. Then, we have optimized the usual front graded device simulation of the fully graded device was done and the most important observation is that the open circuit-voltage (V-oc) is much higher than V-oc, of device with uniform band gap where the open circuit voltage density decrease inconsiderately. We showed that a grading strategy with fully graded device can indeed lead to a more favorable trade-off between J(sc) and V-oc than can be obtained with uniform AlGaAs device. (C) 2015 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.