Analysis of surface recombination in nanowire array solar cells

In this work, microscopic three-dimensional simulations were performed on nanowire array solar cells to study the impact of surface recombination (SR) on the photovoltaic performance. Both axially and radially arranged p-n junction in III-V-based structures were taken into consideration. From the cases with SR velocity varying from 1e3  cm/s to 1e6  cm/s , the radial p-n-junction nanowire was found to provide better tolerance for SR. The SR difference within the axial and radial p-n-junction structures is explained by analyzing the relevant minority carrier density, followed by a discussion on the impact of SR on the diffusive nature of minority carriers.

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