Modeling and Simulation of III-Nitride-Based Solar Cells using Nextnano®

<p>Nextnano³ software is a well-known package for simulating semiconductor band-structures at the nanoscale and predicting the general electronic structure. In this work, it is further demonstrated as a viable tool for the simulation of III-nitride solar cells. In order to prove this feasibility, the generally accepted solar cell simulation package, PC1D, was chosen for comparison. To critique the results from both PC1D and Nextnano3, the fundamental drift-diffusion equations were used to calculate the performance of a simple p-n homojunction solar cell device analytically. Silicon was picked as the material for this comparison between the outputs of the two simulators as well as the results of the drift-diffusion equations because it is a well-known material in both software tools. After substantiating the capabilities of Nextnano³ for the simulation solar cells, an InGaN single-junction solar cell was simulated. The effects of various indium compositions and device structures on the performance of this InGaN p-n homojunction solar cell was then investigated using Nextnano3 as a simulation tool. For single-junction devices with varying bandgap, an In0.6Ga0.4N device with a bandgap of 1.44 eV was found to be the optimum. The results of this research demonstrate that the Nextnano³ software can be used to usefully simulate solar cells in general, and III-nitride solar cells specifically, for future study of nanoscale structured devices. </p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science in Microelectronics-Photonics (MS)

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Year dc:date.available

2017

Author dc:creator

• Refaei, Malak

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Ware, Morgan E.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Churchill, Hugh O.H.
• Chen, Zhong

• Indium Gallium Nitride
• Simulation
• Solar Cells
• Electromagnetics and Photonics
• Semiconductor and Optical Materials

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/2616

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarworks.uark.edu:etd-4165