Boosting the Efficiency of CZTS/Si Tandem Solar Cells Using In₂O₃ Layer in CZTS Top Cell

Abstract

While single-junction solar cells may be capable of attaining AM1.5 theoretical efficiency of 33.16%, infinite multijunction (MJ, Tandem) solar cells will have a limiting efficiency of 86.8%. Tandem solar cells based on crystalline silicon (c-Si) bottom cells are therefore attracting great interest. An interesting candidate for the top cell absorber is represented by copper zinc tin sulfide Cu 2 ZnSnS 4 (CZTS). In this work, the CZTS/Si tandem solar cell is optimized by using indium oxide / Cadmium sulfide (In 2 O 3 /CdS) hybrid buffer. This present work reports CZTS/Si solar cell with an open-circuit voltage V OC of over 0.942 V and a J SC of 34.7 mA cm − ² by adding In 2 O 3 layer in the CZTS top cell. The added In 2 O 3 layer has a thickness of 0.022 µm and is n-doped with a concentration of 1e20 cm −3 . Compared with a CZTS/Si in which the hybrid buffer is of CdS, the efficiency is increased from 13.5% to 28.4%. These hybrid In 2 O 3 /CdS buffers provide a promising way to reduce the V OC deficit and further boost the efficiency of CZTS/Si solar cells.

Effect and optimization of the Zn3P2 back surface field on the efficiency of CZTS/CZTSSe tandem solar cell: a computational approach

“…Bibi et al developed an effective model of the CZT-S/Si tandem solar cell considering nontoxic ZnMgO as a buffer layer of the upper subcell and obtained 23% efficiency for current matching at 193 nm of the CZTS layer in upper cell along with Si absorber layer thickness of 80 µm in the lower cell [23]. Doumit et al performed a computational analysis of a CZTS/Si tandem solar cell and obtained a maximum efficiency of 28% by considering the indium oxide/cadmium sulfide (In 2 O 3 /CdS) hybrid buffer [24]. Abderrezek and Djeghlal employed solar cell capacitance simulator-one dimension (SCAPS-1D) to investigate the CZTS/CZTSSe tandem solar cells and discovered that adding a strongly doped CZTS thin layer as a back surface field (BSF) to the upper subcell increases the efficiency of the tandem cell from 15% to 19.25% [25].…”

Defect Engineering in Earth‐Abundant Cu2ZnSnSe4 Absorber Using Efficient Alkali Doping for Flexible and Tandem Solar Cell Applications

“…Numerous studies have predicted the possibility of achieving high-efficiency kesterite tandem solar cells using device simulations. [20][21][22] Nevertheless, very few tandem cells combined with kesterite-based bottom cells have been reported. Todorov et al [23] obtained an efficiency of 4.6% for a monolithic CZTSSe/perovskite tandem solar cell.…”