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Updated: Aug 6, 2026

Polycrystalline Silicon Thin-film Solar cells with Plasmonic-enhanced Light-trapping
Published on: July 2, 2012
Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate)/GaAs hybrid solar cells with 13% power conversion efficiency
Abstract:
Planar hybrid solar cells based on bulk GaAs wafers with a background doping density of 10(16) cm(-3) and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene): poly(styrenesulfonate) (
Pedot:
PSS) demonstrated an excellent power conversion efficiency of 8.99%. The efficiency of the cell was enhanced to 9.87% with a back-surface field feature using a molecular beam epitaxially grown n-type GaAs epi-layer. The efficiency and fill factor reach 11.86% and 0.8 when an additional p + GaAs epi-layer is deposited on the surface of the solar cells, which provides a front-surface field. The interface between the high- and low-doped regions in the polymer/GaAs and GaAs formed an electric field that introduced a barrier to minority carriers flow to the substrate and effectively reduced front surface carrier recombination, thereby enhancing light-generated free carrier collection efficiency and open-circuit voltage. Compared with the device without the front- and back-surface field, the fill factor and open-circuit voltage of the hybrid solar cell were improved from 0.76 to 0.8 and from 0.68 V to 0.77V, respectively. The highest efficiency reaches a record 13% when the Zonyl fluorosurfactant-treated
Pedot:
PSS is used as a hole-transporting conducting layer for hybrid cells.

