Increased efficiency in multijunction solar cells through the incorporation of semimetallic ErAs nanoparticles into the tunnel junction

We report the molecular beam epitaxy growth of Al0.3Ga0.7As∕GaAs multijunction solar cells with epitaxial, semimetallic ErAs nanoparticles at the interface of the tunnel junction. The states provided by these nanoparticles reduce the bias required to pass current through the tunnel junction by three orders of magnitude, and therefore drastically reduce the voltage losses in the tunnel junction. We have measured open-circuit voltages which are 97% of the sum of the constituent cells, which result in nearly double the efficiency of our multijunction cell with a conventional tunnel junction.