Date of Graduation
12-2017
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science in Microelectronics-Photonics (MS)
Degree Level
Graduate
Department
Microelectronics-Photonics
Advisor/Mentor
Ware, Morgan E.
Committee Member
Churchill, Hugh O.H.
Second Committee Member
Chen, Zhong
Third Committee Member
Wise, Rick L.
Keywords
Indium Gallium Nitride; Simulation; Solar Cells
Abstract
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.
Citation
Refaei, M. (2017). Modeling and Simulation of III-Nitride-Based Solar Cells using Nextnano®. Graduate Theses and Dissertations Retrieved from https://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/2616