Intermediate band solar cells based on highly mismatched alloys

Tooru Tanaka

Associate Professor, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Saga University

Abstract

Highly mismatched alloys (HMAs) are a class of materials whose fundamental properties are dramatically modified through the substitution of host atoms with an element of very much different electronegativity. In ZnTe, the incorporation of a small amount of isoelectronic oxygen leads to the formation of a narrow, oxygen-derived band located in the band gap of ZnTe. The three absorption edges of ZnTeO cover the entire solar spectrum providing a material envisioned for the multi-band, single junction, high efficiency photovoltaic devices. This research aims to clarify the fundamental properties of ZnTe based HMA for realizing the intermediate band solar cells.