Photovoltaic solar cells based on graphene/gallium arsenide Schottky junction

In this article, a computational study on the photovoltaic performance and electrical characteristics of graphene/gallium arsenide Schottky junction solar cell with structure graphene/SiO2/GaAs/Au is undertaken. Graphene is used as a transparent current conducting electrode. Design and simulation of the device is carried out using Silvaco TCAD Atlas tool. Thickness of the GaAs layer is taken as 10 mu m throughout the study. Under AM 1.5 G solar illumination, the device shows an open -circuit voltage (V-oc) of 0.35 V, a short-circuit current density (J(sc)) of 2.14 mAcm(-2), and a fill factor (FF) of 69.74%, yielding a profound energy conversion efficiency (eta) of 5.3%. The device exhibits an ideality factor of 1.05 along with a diode rectification ratio of 1.8 x 10(6). The excellent photovoltaic performance of the device is caused by the strong built-in potential in the Schottky junction, low recombination rate and the transparent nature of graphene. The effect of schottky junction formed between graphene and GaAs interface as well as the material properties on the performance of the device is demonstrated. A band diagram is proposed to explain the carrier transport phenomena.