Quantifying the Effects of Light Trapping on GaAs Solar Cells

By means of numerical simulations, we have investigated the effects of generic light trapping mechanisms on conventional and impurity GaAs solar cells. Our results indicate that light-trapping mechanisms are very efficient tools for reducing the amount of material and the deposition time required to produce GaAs solar cells. We have also estimated that impurity GaAs solar cells do not benefit from light-trapping mechanisms more than conventional GaAs solar cells, unless extremely efficient light-trapping mechanisms are employed.