Tunnel current through a miniband in InGaAs quantum dot superlattice solar cells

We report the tunnel current through a miniband in In0.4Ga0.6As quantum dot (QD) superlattice solar cells fabricated using molecular beam epitaxy. High-quality and well-aligned In0.4Ga0.6As QD superlattice structures with an interdot spacing of 3.5 nm were grown without using a strain balancing technique. 10-stack In0.4Ga0.6As QD superlattice solar cells had a high open circuit voltage and good cell characteristics even when the interdot spacing was reduced to 3.5 nm. Moreover, a short-circuit current density increases as the interdot spacing decreases. From the temperature dependence of the external quantum efficiency for QD solar cells with different interdot spacings, we observed the tunnel current through a miniband in QD superlattices with an interdot spacing of 3.5 nm.

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► We report tunnel current through a miniband in InGaAs QD superlattice solar cells.
► 10-stack InGaAs QD superlattice solar cells have a high Voc.
► Jsc increases as the interdot spacing decreases to 3.5 nm.
► Temperature dependence of EQE spectra indicates the tunnel current through minibands.