Temperature dependence of GaSb and AlGaSb solar cells

Sb-based alloys offer great potential for photovoltaic and thermophotovoltaic applications. In this paper, we study the performance of AlxGa1-xSb (x = 0, 0.15, and 0.50) single-junction solar cells over a temperature range of 25–250 °C. The dark current-voltage, one-sun current-voltage, and external quantum efficiency measurements were acquired at different temperatures. Correlations between experimental and numerical results are made to draw conclusions about the thermal behavior of the cells. It is shown that, while the bandgaps decrease linearly with temperature leading to the reduction of open-circuit voltages, the short-circuit current densities decrease with non-linear trends. The temperature-dependent dark current densities were extracted by fitting the dark current-voltage curves to single- and double-diode models to give an insight into the effect of intrinsic carrier concentration (ni) on the cell performance. We find that the ni has a significant impact on temperature-dependent cell performance. These findings could lay a groundwork for the future Sb-based photovoltaic systems that operate at high temperatures. •Parasitic losses associated with the high temperature performance of the AlGaSb solar cell are discussed.•The intrinsic carrier concentration has a dominant impact on the temperature-dependent performance of Sb-based solar cells.•Short-circuit current of Sb-based solar cells has a non-linear trend with temperature.•Analytical model is proposed to model the temperature-dependent behavior of GaSb solar cell.