Design of high performance and ultra-thin CdTe solar cells with SnTe BSF from numerical analysis

Abstract

Polycrystalline Cadmium Telluride (CdTe) is one of the leading solar cell materials for its efficiency, cost-effective and thermal stability. In this research work, numerical analysis is done by AMPS (Analysis of Microelectronic and Photonic Structures) simulator to investigate the cell performances (Jsc, FF, Voc, efficiency and temperature stability) of ultra-thin CdTe solar cell. Reduction of absorber layer was done and observed that 1 m absorber layer is enough for acceptable range of cell conversion efficiency in the proposed cell. The possibility of this ultra-thin CdTe absorber layer was investigated, together with 100 nm SnTe back surface field (BSF) layer to reduce the barrier height in the valence band and to minimize the recombination losses at the back contact of the CdTe PV cell. From the investigation, it was found that the proposed ultra-thin cell have conversion efficiency of 18.68% (Jsc = 21.47 mA/cm 2 , FF = 0.85, Voc = 1.02 V) without BSF and with 100 nm SnTe BSF conversion efficiency increased to 22.61% (Jsc = 24.27 mA/cm 2 , FF = 0.876, Voc = 1.06 V) with only 0.7 m of CdTe absorber layer. Moreover, without BSF and with SnTe BSF, the normalized efficiency of the proposed cell was linearly decreased with the increasing operating temperature at the gradient of -0.18%/°C and -0.16%/°C found in this analysis respectively, which indicated better stability of the proposed CdTe solar cell.

Untitled

“…Another cell structure (Glass(0.5 μm)/SnO2(100nm)/ Zn2SnO4 (100 nm)/ CdS (80 nm )/ CdTe (1 μm)/SnTe (100 nm)/In) has efficiency 22.61%(Voc=1.06 V, Jsc= 24.27 mA/cm 2 , FF= 87.61%). Again the proposed cell shows high performance comparing to this cell structure [17].…”

SnTe as a BSF enhances the performance of Sb2Se3 based solar cell: A numerical approach

“…The CdS/Sb 2 Se 3 and Sb 2 Se 3 /SnTe interface defects are neutral, having a density of 10 10 cm −2 . The simulation parameters needed to establish the baseline device efficiency were taken from [ 10 , 16 , 17 , 20 ] and are summarized in Table 1 .…”

“…SnTe, a semiconductor with a small bandgap (Eg = 0.18 eV) and an extremely high hole concentration, benefits from low resistance and high mobility. Unintentionally doped SnTe often has a carrier concentration of more than 10 20 cm −3 [ 17 ]. In this study, various parameters of Sb 2 Se 3 based solar structure are varied to find the photovoltaic device’s performance with the aid of the SCAPS-1D simulation model.…”

Numerical Analysis of SnO2/Zn2SnO4/n-CdS/p-CdTe Solar Cell Using the SCAPS-1D Simulation Software

“…Several researchers used the traditional model CdTe/p-CdS/n-SnO 2 as a starting point for obtaining high efficiency and less material consumption with different treatment methods for obtaining a thinner solar cell. Dey and his group [7] reduced the thickness of the Absorption Layer (CdTe) to 1µm in the presence of Buffer Layer (Zn 2 SnO 4 ) with a thickness of 100nm and a Windows Layer (CdS) with a thickness of 100 nm. Their results showed values of Voc=1.02 V, Jsc=21.47 mA/cm 2 , FF=85% and η=18.68%.…”