Abstract
In this paper, we investigate the electrical and optical properties of novel InGaAs nanowire solar cells. Key features like high optical absorption and excellent charge carrier mobility make them an attractive candidate to established solar cell technologies. The aim of our study is gain a deeper understanding of the underlying physics involved and to identify the limiting factors in the device under study. We perform a detailed simulation study of a fabricated nanowire structure under typical illumination conditions, extracting key figures of merit like efficiency, short-circuit current and open circuit voltage; our values are in good agreement with recently reported nanowire solar cells. After having validated our simulation approach, different optimization techniques are investigated in order to maximize the performance of the solar cell. © 2015 IEEE.