Tunneling Current of an AlGaAs/GaAs Multiple-Quantum-well Solar Cell Considering a Trapezoidal Potential Barrier

T he barrier created in the intrinsic multiple quantum well (MQW) region of a quantum well solar cell (QWSC) appears to be trapezoidal in nature. In this paper, a trapezoidal barrier has been considered and the expression for the tunneling current of the QWSC has been obtained. The variation of the tunneling current with temperature has been shown graphically. In addition to this, the expressions for temperature and wavelength dependent refractive indices of different regions of the QWSC have been taken into account while performing the calculations of reflection coefficient. Solar cells having different well width and barrier width have been chosen and the variation of the tunneling current densities with wavelength of incident light and temperature of the device has been studied for each cell. It has been observed that the tunneling current density falls with increase in the temperature of the cell.