In this paper, we report the effects of surface barrier layers on the characteristics of AlGaAs/GaAs solar cells. The external quantum efficiency (EQE) spectra for AlGaAs barrier samples with different barrier layer AlAs fractions and thickness of the surface barrier layer were measured to increase the solar cell efficiency. The results show that the surface barrier layer is effective to block diffusing photoexcited electrons to the surface while the thicker barrier layer absorbs higher energy photons to generate carriers which recombine at the surface. The optimal surface barrier structure is a 50 nm thick Al0.7Ga0.3As. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved,