High efficiency thin-film gallium arsenide solar cells

GaAs基太阳能电池的最新发展已使效率超过30%。空间应用广泛采用砷化镓太阳能电池也大大降低了材料成本。 然而，GaAs电池仍然比硅电池昂贵得多。本申请涉及用于剥离GaAs薄膜的可制造技术的开发。 这种方法由于减少了材料使用而允许显著降低成本，同时保持高效率。 还将开发用于剥离电池的光捕获，这将允许接近性能的理论极限，并研究GaAs中的基本过程。

Recent developments in GaAs-based solar cells have led to efficiencies above 30%. Widespread adoption of GaAs-based solar cells for space applications has also brought about large reductions in material costs. However, GaAs cells are still much more expensive than silicon cells. This application addresses the development of a manufacturable technique for lifting off thin films of GaAs. This approach allows a significantly reduced cost due to reduced materials usage, while maintaining high efficiency. Light-trapping for lifted-off cells will also be developed, which will allow the theoretical limit to performance to be approached, and fundamental processes in GaAs to be investigated.