A possible explanation for the photovoltaic effect in indium tin oxide on InP solar cells

Abstract

Recently, Sree Harsha and co‐workers reported a 14.4% efficient n‐indium tin oxide/p‐InP solar cell. In principle, it is difficult to visualize a high‐efficiency photovoltaic device with this particular structure because of large interfacial defects due to crystal structure and lattice mismatch. However, we propose an explanation for the operation of this solar cell based on the presence of a thin interfacial insulating layer between the indium tin oxide and the InP. The operation is similar to tunnel MIS solar cells where the metal is replaced by a degenerate wide‐band‐gap oxide (indium tin oxide) semiconductor. Our calculations show that such semiconductor‐insulator‐semiconductor solar cells can yield efficiencies as high as 26% (AM2) with InP as the base semiconductor.