Dependence on the incident light power of the internal electric fields in a GaAs p-i-n solar cell according to bright photoreflectance spectroscopy

Bright photoreflectance (BPR) spectroscopy at room temperature is used to examine the internal electric fields in a GaAs p-i-n solar cell for their dependence on the incident light power. Electric fields are observed at 30 µ W and 100 µ W of incident light. With increasing power, the strengths of the two electric fields are reduced due to the photovoltage effect. The electric field observed at 30 µ W is assigned to the p-i interface, which is close to the surface. The other electric field is due to the i-n interface because the incident light penetrates deeper as the light power is increased. The electric field strength of 35.6 kV/cm at the p-i interface is lower than that of 42.9 kV/cm at the i-n interface at 500 µ W of light power because the photovoltage effect is proportional to the number of photo-generated carriers, which is reduced as the distance from the surface increases. When the incident light power is similar to the excitation beam power, the electric fields at the p-i interface are saturated.