III-V solar cell technology for concentrator PV systems is a technology that originally came from the triple junction III-V solar cells used in space applications where concentrators are not used. Cells for both applications, terrestrial concentrators and space, are designed to optimize conversion efficiency by collecting a broad range of the solar spectrum. Because the III-V alloy composition determines its energy band gap and many III-V alloys can be grown epitaxially on each other, a stack of multiple layers of different bandgaps can be manufactured.
The main area for improvement of III-V thin film PV is increased conversion efficiency for concentrator PV systems, and manufacturing scale up.
Materials characterization using surface analysis methods can be used to support analysis R&D of efficiency improvements.