Native oxide and external dielectric polycrystalline GaAs MIS solar cells

Abstract The polycrystalline MIS solar cell is a potential candidate for converting solar energy to electrical energy for large scale terrestrial applications. In this paper, we have-modelled native oxide and external added dielectric polycrystalline GaAs MIS solar cells. Two assumptions were made: )i) the potential barrier near the grain boundary lias no effect on the barrier height of the device; (ii) the main effect of the grain boundary is to reduce the minority carrier lifetime of the polycrystalline semiconductor. The performance of A u-polycrystalline GaAs MIS solar cells have been calculated as a function of the grain size of the crystallites. The native oxide device was modelled as a parallel combination of Schottky barrier and M IS solar cell. These calculations show that in case of native oxide devices, if the fractional areas of Schottky parts is greater than about 104 to 103. the beneficial effect of the interfacial layer will not be observed.