Design of the TCO (ZnO:Al) thickness for glass/TCO/CdS/CIGS/Mo solar cells

Bernal-Correa, Roberto; Morales‐Acevedo, Arturo; Montes-Monsalve, Jorge; Pulzara-Mora, A.

doi:10.1088/0022-3727/49/12/125601

Cited by 27 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…T(λ) for the above cell structure. In this case, a transmittance average around 80% (above the ZnO:Al absorption edge) is obtained, which is in good agreement with other reported theoretical and experimental results (Bernal-Correa, Morales-Acevedo,Montes-Monsalve, & Pulzara-Mora, 2016;Kuwahata & Minemoto, 2014).Based on the values shown in…”

supporting

confidence: 92%

Design of thin film solar cells based on a unified simple analytical model

Acevedo-Luna

Bernal-Correa

Montes-Monsalve

et al. 2017

Journal of Applied Research and Technology

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Polycrystalline thin film solar cells made with absorber materials such as CdTe, CIGS, CZTS and metalorganic halides (perovskites) are currently important alternatives for the silicon solar cell technology, which still dominates the photovoltaic market. Then, it is important to have tools which can be used to design this kind of solar cells. For this purpose, we have developed a unified simple analytical model that can be applied to thin film solar cells. The model is based on the basic physics of hetero-junction devices, but it takes into consideration that the space charge region can extend along the major part of the cell length, particularly for very thin cells, causing important effects that typically are not observed in conventional junction devices. Photo-generated carriers are collected by electric field-drift instead of diffusion, and simultaneously strong recombination at this region may dominate the electrical I-V characteristic of the cell. Since the space-charge region width varies with the applied voltage, the illumination current density and the saturation dark current density are no longer independent of the voltage as is assumed for conventional solar cells. When the model is applied to CIS and CdTe solar cells as examples, it is found that it is possible to design very thin film solar cells (absorber less than 1 m thick) with high efficiencies, whenever the recombination velocity at the back surface becomes small (10 2 cm/s), instead of the high recombination velocities present at ohmic contacts (10 7 cm/s). This fact implies the cost reduction of thin film solar cells by reducing absorber material thickness, and therefore it poses a challenge to develop deposition methods for very thin CdTe and CIGS absorber materials without pinholes, so that improved efficiencies are obtained when the surface recombination velocity is made small at the back by having a p+ or an electron blocking region before the ohmic contact. This result also explains the high efficiencies achieved by very thin perovskite solar cells.

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supporting

confidence: 92%

Design of thin film solar cells based on a unified simple analytical model

Acevedo-Luna

Bernal-Correa

Montes-Monsalve

et al. 2017

Journal of Applied Research and Technology

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“…Transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) have captured the attention of the scientific community in the past decades due to their ability to function both as an optical window as well as a top electrode for high-efficiency optoelectronic devices, such as thin film inorganic (μc-Si: H, CIGS, CdTe), [1,2] perovskite-based, [3,4] perovskite tandem based, [5] organic, [6] and dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), [7] as well as for photodiodes, [8] and OLEDs. [9] Particularly, fluorine-doped tin oxide (F-SnO 2 ; FTO) is widely used in thin-film solar cells due to its low cost, thermal resistance, and electronic compatibility.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optical Enhancement of Fluorine‐Doped Tin Oxide Thin Films using Infrared Picosecond Direct Laser Interference Patterning

2022

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Surface texturization of Transparent Conductive Oxides (TCOs) is a well‐known strategy to enhance the light‐trapping capabilities of thin‐film solar cells and thus, to increase their power conversion efficiency. Herein, the surface modification of fluorine‐doped tin oxide (FTO) using picosecond infrared direct laser interference patterning (DLIP) is presented. The surface characterization exhibits periodic microchannels, which act as diffraction gratings yielding an increase in the average diffuse transmittance up to 870% in the spectral range of 400–1000 nm. Despite the one dimensionality of the microstructures, the films did not acquire a significant anisotropic electrical behavior, but a partial deterioration of their conductivity is observed as a result of the removal of conductive material. This work proposes the feasibility of trading off a portion of the electrical conductivity to obtain a substantial improvement in the optical performance.

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“…What is even more remarkable is that the SP-TCOs outperform by at least one order of magnitude in FoM the high effective mass/low mobility B-TCOs. At a thickness of 5 µm (which is compatible with various applications such as solar cells [29,30,31,32]), SP-TCOs with an activation energy of at most 0.1 eV and a doping between 10 21 and 10 22 cm −3 will show larger FoM than low mobility B-TCOs of optimal thickness (100 nm -1 µm). To put it simply, an SP-TCO with adequate materials properties (high doping level and low activation energy) will perform better than a lousy (low mobility/high effective mass) B-TCO.…”

Section: Comparison Of Performances For B-and Sp-tcosmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are Small Polarons Always Detrimental to Transparent Conducting Oxides ?

Brunin,

Rignanese,

Hautier

2018

Preprint

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Design of the TCO (ZnO:Al) thickness for glass/TCO/CdS/CIGS/Mo solar cells

Cited by 27 publications

References 26 publications

Design of thin film solar cells based on a unified simple analytical model

Design of thin film solar cells based on a unified simple analytical model

Optical Enhancement of Fluorine‐Doped Tin Oxide Thin Films using Infrared Picosecond Direct Laser Interference Patterning

Are Small Polarons Always Detrimental to Transparent Conducting Oxides ?

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