Amorphous Silicon Single-Junction Thin-Film Solar Cell Exceeding 10%Efficiency by Design Optimization

Abstract

The conversion efficiency of a solar cell can substantially be increased by improved material properties and associated designs. At first, this study has adopted AMPS-1D (analysis of microelectronic and photonic structures) simulation technique to design and optimize the cell parameters prior to fabrication, where the optimum design parameters can be validated. Solar cells of single junction based on hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) have been analyzed by using AMPS-1D simulator. The investigation has been made based on important model parameters such as thickness, doping concentrations, bandgap, and operating temperature and so forth. The efficiency of single junction a-Si:H can be achieved as high as over 19% after parametric optimization in the simulation, which might seem unrealistic with presently available technologies. Therefore, the numerically designed and optimized a-SiC:H/a-SiC:H-buffer/a-Si:H/a-Si:H solar cells have been fabricated by using PECVD (plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition), where the best initial conversion efficiency of 10.02% has been achieved (V oc = 0.88 V, J sc = 15.57 mA/cm 2 and FF = 0.73) for a small area cell (0.086 cm 2 ). The quantum efficiency (QE) characteristic shows the cell's better spectral response in the wavelength range of 400 nm-650 nm, which proves it to be a potential candidate as the middle cell in a-Si-based multijunction structures.

Design and Simulation of FeSi2‐Based Novel Heterojunction Solar Cells for Harnessing Visible and Near‐Infrared Light

“…It has been reported that increasing the absorber thickness in a BaSi 2 /CdS/fluorine‐doped tin oxide solar cell causes V OC to decrease gradually . A very similar decreasing fashion is also observed for a‐Si:H solar cells . However, the experimentally fabricated FeSi 2 solar cells gave V OC in the range 176–450 mV, whereas it was 391–900 mV for the theoretical works.…”

Enhanced efficiency of Schottky-barrier solar cell with periodically nonhomogeneous indium gallium nitride layer

“…the accompanying spatial gradient in the bandgap that may also aid charge separation and reduce the EHP recombination rate. 23,24 The study described herein concerns an especially simple type of solar cell that has received scant attention from researchers to date: a Schottky-barrier solar cell. 25 The Schottky barrier is provided by a metal-semiconductor junction.…”

Multiscale Computational Fluid Dynamics: Methodology and Application to PECVD of Thin Film Solar Cells

“…One such phenomenon, which remains a persistent issue during the manufacture of amorphous silicon thin films, is non-uniformities which develop in the thickness and morphology of deposited layers across the radius of the wafer. Spatially non-uniform deposition has been well characterized [14][15][16] and shown to affect the efficiency of solar cell products [17], resulting in poor device quality and increased costs [18]. As such, there exists a need for accurate PECVD reactor models which are capable of predicting the codependent behavior of the macroscopic gas phase and microscopic thin film growth.…”