Ultra-lightweight and flexible inverted metamorphic four junction solar cells for space applications

Malte Klitzke; Jonas Schön; Rosalinda H. Van Leest; Gunther M.M.W. Bissels; Elias Vlieg; Michael Schachtner; Frank Dimroth; David Lackner

doi:10.1051/epjpv/2022024

All issues

Volume 13 (2022)

EPJ Photovolt., 13 (2022) 25

Abstract

Special Issue on ‘WCPEC-8: State of the Art and Developments in Photovoltaics’, edited by Alessandra Scognamiglio, Robert Kenny, Shuzi Hayase and Arno Smets

Open Access

Issue		EPJ Photovolt. Volume 13, 2022 Special Issue on ‘WCPEC-8: State of the Art and Developments in Photovoltaics’, edited by Alessandra Scognamiglio, Robert Kenny, Shuzi Hayase and Arno Smets


Article Number		25
Number of page(s)		9
Section		High Efficiency Materials and Devices - New concepts
DOI		https://doi.org/10.1051/epjpv/2022024
Published online		18 November 2022

EPJ Photovoltaics 13, 25 (2022)
https://doi.org/10.1051/epjpv/2022024

Regular Article

Ultra-lightweight and flexible inverted metamorphic four junction solar cells for space applications

Malte Klitzke¹^*, Jonas Schön¹^,2, Rosalinda H. Van Leest³, Gunther M.M.W. Bissels³, Elias Vlieg³^,4, Michael Schachtner¹, Frank Dimroth¹ and David Lackner¹

¹ Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Conversion ISE, Heidenhofstr. 2, 79110 Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
² INATECH – University of Freiburg, Emmy-Noether-Straße 2, 79110 Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
³ tf2 devices, Heyendaalseweg 135, 6525 AJ Nijmegen, The Netherlands
⁴ Institute for Molecules and Materials, Radboud University, Heyendaalseweg 135, 6525 Nijmegen, The Netherlands

^* e-mail: malte.klitzke@ise.fraunhofer.de

Received: 29 July 2022
Received in final form: 26 September 2022
Accepted: 20 October 2022
Published online: 18 November 2022

Abstract

In this work an inverted metamorphic four junction (IMM4J) solar cell with 30.9% conversion efficiency in beginning of life conditions under the AM0 (1367 W/m²) spectrum is presented. Additionally, our newest improved IMM3J cell, consisting of Ga_0.51In_0.49P/GaAs/Ga_0.73In_0.27As subcells, with 30.6% efficiency is also shown. The IMM4J solar cells consist of Al_0.05Ga_0.46In_0.49P/Al_0.14Ga_0.86As/Ga_0.89In_0.11As/Ga_0.73In_0.27As subcells and are epitaxially grown by metal organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) on a GaAs substrate. These IMM solar cells achieve power-to-mass ratios of 3 W/g or more, which is more than three times higher than standard germanium based triple or four junction space solar cells. The losses in comparison to the simulated near-term potential efficiency of 33.8% for the IMM4J are analyzed in detail. Furthermore, the irradiation behavior for 1 MeV electron fluences of 1 × 10¹⁴ e⁻/cm² and 2.5 × 10¹⁴ e⁻/cm² for the IMM4J cells was investigated. A roadmap to further develop this concept towards an IMM5J with a realistic begin of life (BOL) efficiency potential of 35.9% under AM0 is presented.

Key words: MOVPE / space solar cell / multi junction solar cell / end of life / photovoltaics

Note to the reader: The last sentence in Acknowledgements was added on 26 May 2023

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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