Reference number : GC-2017-Q3-00849, amendment number : , agreement type : G, recipient legal name : Moutanabbir, Oussama (École Polytechnique de Montréal), recipient country : CA, recipient province : nan, recipient city : Quebec|Québec, recipient postal code : nan, program name english : Strategic Projects - Group, program name french : Projets stratégiques - groupe, program purpose english : The interest in III-V multi-junction solar cells is currently driven by space applications, but the largest potential market for these cells is certainly terrestrial. In this regard, terrestrial concentrator systems utilizing high-efficiency III-V multi-junction solar cells have been increasingly considered for large-scale generation of electrical power. However, this long-sought for integration of III-V multi-junction solar cells in large-scale consumer applications depends on the ability to establish new scalable technologies with higher efficiencies and significant material cost saving. The state-of-the-art multi-junction solar cells are grown on bulk gallium arsenide (GaAs) or germanium (Ge) substrates, which are prohibitively expensive. To circumvent these technological bottlenecks, this project aims at designing, developing, and optimizing a novel monolithic III-V multi-junction solar cells with an optimal 1eV subcell. The key strategy here is to introduce silicon-germanium-thin (SiGeSn) semiconductor in the fabrication of III-V solar cells. The proposed design consists of InGaP/InGaAs/SiGeSn/Ge junctions. The fact that SiGeSn bandgap can be tuned around 1eV while being lattice-matched to Ge will enable an optimal absorption of solar spectrum, which is central to further enhance the conversion efficiency. Moreover, the fact that high-crystalline quality SiGeSn and Ge layers can be grown on silicon wafers will also eliminate the need for bulk Ge and enable the integration of the proposed solar cells onto mechanically robust and inexpensive Si handle substrates. This is key to achieve the cost-effectiveness necessary for the development of large-scale, terrestrial applications of III-V solar cell technologies., program purpose french : The interest in III-V multi-junction solar cells is currently driven by space applications, but the largest potential market for these cells is certainly terrestrial. In this regard, terrestrial concentrator systems utilizing high-efficiency III-V multi-junction solar cells have been increasingly considered for large-scale generation of electrical power. However, this long-sought for integration of III-V multi-junction solar cells in large-scale consumer applications depends on the ability to establish new scalable technologies with higher efficiencies and significant material cost saving. The state-of-the-art multi-junction solar cells are grown on bulk gallium arsenide (GaAs) or germanium (Ge) substrates, which are prohibitively expensive. To circumvent these technological bottlenecks, this project aims at designing, developing, and optimizing a novel monolithic III-V multi-junction solar cells with an optimal 1eV subcell. The key strategy here is to introduce silicon-germanium-thin (SiGeSn) semiconductor in the fabrication of III-V solar cells. The proposed design consists of InGaP/InGaAs/SiGeSn/Ge junctions. The fact that SiGeSn bandgap can be tuned around 1eV while being lattice-matched to Ge will enable an optimal absorption of solar spectrum, which is central to further enhance the conversion efficiency. Moreover, the fact that high-crystalline quality SiGeSn and Ge layers can be grown on silicon wafers will also eliminate the need for bulk Ge and enable the integration of the proposed solar cells onto mechanically robust and inexpensive Si handle substrates. This is key to achieve the cost-effectiveness necessary for the development of large-scale, terrestrial applications of III-V solar cell technologies., agreement title english : Monolithic multi-junction III-V solar cells with optimal 1 eV subcell, agreement title french : Monolithic multi-junction III-V solar cells with optimal 1 eV subcell, agreement number : STPGP, agreement value : 660000.0, agreement start date : 2017-10-18, agreement end date : nan, description english : nan, description french : nan, expected results english : nan, expected results french : nan, additional information english : Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year (2017-2018 to 2020-2021)., additional information french : Subvention ou bourse octroyée s'appliquant à plus d'un exercice financier (2017-2018 à 2020-2021)., owner organization : nserc-crsng, owner organization title : Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada | Conseil de recherches en sciences naturelles et en génie du Canada