III-V thin-film photovoltaic solar cells based on single-crystal-like GaAs grown on flexible metal tapes

This paper describes the demonstration of the flexible single-junction III-V solar cells based on high-quality epitaxial GaAs thin films on a low-cost flexible metal substrate. The single-crystal-like semiconductor material structure is fabricated to photovoltaic devices with front illumination geometry. We fabricate a proof-of-concept epitaxial GaAs thin film solar cell with an open-circuit voltage of 0.3 V and short-circuit current of 6 mA/cm², resulting in conversion efficiency of ~1% in AM1.5G condition. Relatively low efficiency can be further increased by material crystalline quality improvement and device optimization. This development has the potential to open a new avenue for next-generation low-cost and high efficiency flexible PV devices.