Modelling of thin-film silicon solar cells

Zeman, Miro; Isabella, Olindo; Solntsev, S.; Jäger, Klaus

doi:10.1016/j.solmat.2013.05.037

Cited by 86 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 85 publications

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“…IV were performed using the Advanced Semiconductor Analysis (ASA) software package (version 6). 44,45 The input parameters for the simulation are given in the Appendix, and relevant choices are discussed in Sec. IV.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Light-induced Voc increase and decrease in high-efficiency amorphous silicon solar cells

Stückelberger

Riesen

Despeisse

et al. 2014

Journal of Applied Physics

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High-efficiency amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) solar cells were deposited with different thicknesses of the p-type amorphous silicon carbide layer on substrates of varying roughness. We observed a light-induced open-circuit voltage (V oc ) increase upon light soaking for thin p-layers, but a decrease for thick p-layers. Further, the V oc increase is enhanced with increasing substrate roughness. After correction of the p-layer thickness for the increased surface area of rough substrates, we can exclude varying the effective p-layer thickness as the cause of the substrate roughness dependence. Instead, we explain the observations by an increase of the dangling-bond density in both the p-layer-causing a V oc increase-and in the intrinsic absorber layer, causing a V oc decrease. We present a mechanism for the light-induced increase and decrease, justified by the investigation of light-induced changes of the p-layer and supported by Advanced Semiconductor Analysis simulation. We conclude that a shift of the electron quasi-Fermi level towards the conduction band is the reason for the observed V oc enhancements, and poor amorphous silicon quality on rough substrates enhances this effect.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Light-induced Voc increase and decrease in high-efficiency amorphous silicon solar cells

Stückelberger

Riesen

Despeisse

et al. 2014

Journal of Applied Physics

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“…[1][2][3][4][5] The nano-textured substrates with morphology features in the order of 1 lm are commonly used to achieve efficient light trapping in the state-of-the-art devices. [4][5][6][7][8][9][10] However, the nano-textured substrates deteriorate the electrical performance of solar cells by decreasing the open-circuit voltage (V oc ) and fill factor (FF) compared to flat substrates. 7,11,12 Furthermore, the V oc and FF of nc-Si:H solar cells show considerable drop as the cell thickness increases, 9,13-16 whilst thick nc-Si:H absorber layer (typically 2-3 lm or even thicker) is required to achieve high current density.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Micro-textures for efficient light trapping and improved electrical performance in thin-film nanocrystalline silicon solar cells

Hui‐min

Psomadaki

Isabella

et al. 2013

Applied Physics Letters

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Micro-textures with large opening angles and smooth U-shape are applied to nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si:H) solar cells. The micro-textured substrates result in higher open-circuit-voltage (Voc) and fill-factor (FF) than nano-textured substrates. For thick solar cells, high Voc and FF are maintained. Particularly, the Voc only drops from 564 to 541 mV as solar cell thickness increases from 1 to 5 μm. The improvement in electrical performance of solar cells is ascribed to the growth of dense nc-Si:H layers free from defective filaments on micro-textured substrates. Thereby, micromorph tandem solar cells with an initial efficiency of 13.3%, Voc = 1.464 V, and FF = 0.759 are obtained.

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“…In order to facilitate the burdensome task of current matching, optical simulations have been used to estimate the absorption distribution in a solar cell. In the inhouse optical model GenPro4, 16 simulation of scattering properties at a textured interface is treated either by ray tracing or by scalar scattering theory depending on feature size of the concerned morphology. The feature size of the textured glass is much larger than the wavelengths of interest; therefore, ray tracing approach was selected in our simulations.…”

Section: Quadruple-junction Thin-film Silicon-based Solar Cells With mentioning

confidence: 99%

Quadruple-junction thin-film silicon-based solar cells with high open-circuit voltage

Kim

Santbergen

Tan

et al. 2014

Applied Physics Letters

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We have fabricated a-SiOx:H/a-Si:H/nc-Si:H/nc-Si:H quadruple-junction thin-film silicon-based solar cells (4J TFSSCs) to obtain high spectral utilization and high voltages. By processing the solar cells on micro-textured superstrates, extremely high open-circuit voltages for photovoltaic technology based on thin-film silicon alloys up to 2.91 V have been achieved. Optical simulations of quadruple-junction solar cells using an advanced in-house model are a crucial tool to effectively tackle the challenging task of current matching among the individual sub-cells in such devices. After optimizing the optical design of the device and the absorber thicknesses, an energy conversion efficiency of 11.4% has been achieved. The open-circuit voltage, short-circuit current density, and fill factor were 2.82 V, 5.49 mA/cm2, and 73.9%, respectively. Based on this demonstration, strategies for further development of highly efficient 4J TFSSCs are proposed.

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Modelling of thin-film silicon solar cells

Cited by 86 publications

References 85 publications

Light-induced Voc increase and decrease in high-efficiency amorphous silicon solar cells

Light-induced Voc increase and decrease in high-efficiency amorphous silicon solar cells

Micro-textures for efficient light trapping and improved electrical performance in thin-film nanocrystalline silicon solar cells

Quadruple-junction thin-film silicon-based solar cells with high open-circuit voltage

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