Solar Cell Performance after Exfoliation Using Sonic Liftoff
Removing grown device layers from a GaAs substrate is an essential aspect of reducing costs of III–V photovoltaics. While many methods of device layer removal have been explored, Sonic Lift‐off (SLO) demonstrates novel control of the stress conditions within the substrate during exfoliation. By utilizing acoustic energy, this technique allows for a lower maximum stress required to fully lift‐off layers from a substrate. We demonstrate that this technique results in no damage to inverted‐grown and upright‐grown exfoliated devices. The inverted device demonstrated an efficiency of 26.8% after SLO in comparison to 26.5% for a traditionally‐processed cell, and the upright device showed a 22.0% efficiency after SLO. The SLO process has been shown to produce exfoliated, damage‐free devices and opens the door for substrate reuse to reduce the cost of III–V photovoltaics.
Authors
- Pablo Guimerá Coll (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5776-9740)
- Emily L. Warren (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8568-7881)
- Seth M. Hubbard (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7661-4090)
- Stephen J. Polly (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7563-6738)
- Myles A. Steiner (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1643-9766)
- Andrew Sindermann (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4331-4555)
- Mariana I. Bertoni (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0415-837X)
- Anica N. Neumann (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9094-4157)
- Lara J. Bathurst
Institutions
- National Laboratory of the Rockies (US)
- Rochester Institute of Technology (US)
- Colorado School of Mines (US)
- Phoenix (United States) (US)
- Arizona State University (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Solar RRL
- Published
- 2025-06-24
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/solr.202500049
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- solar cell performance optimization
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.73
Funders
- U.S. Department of Energy
- Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
- Office of Energy Efficiency