51% Efficient Photonic Power Converters for O-Band Wavelengths around 1310 nm

Photovoltaic cells for conversion of wavelengths in the O-band around 1310 nm are developed. Excellent performance with an efficiency of 51.1% at elevated irradiance is demonstrated with an InGaAsP based cell grown lattice matched on InP. Under one sun irradiance a bandgap-voltage difference of only W
_OC
=331 mV is achieved. In addition, metamorphic GaInAs cells are introduced, which are grown on a step graded metamorphic buffer on GaAs substrates. Despite the metamorphic growth, good material quality as well as promising uniformity across a full 4” wafer are demonstrated with a median bandgap-voltage difference of W
_OC
=226 mV at elevated short-circuit current densities of about 2.7 A/cm
²
.