Numerical Investigations and Analysis of Cu₂ZnSnS₄Based Solar Cells by SCAPS-1D

Abstract

This paper reports numerical investigation, using SCAPS-1D program, of the influence of Cu2ZnSnS4(the so-called CZTS) material features such as thickness, holes, and defects densities on the performances of ZnO:Al/i-ZnO/CdS/CZTS/Mo solar cells structure. We found that the electrical parameters are seriously affected, when the absorber thickness is lower than 600 nm, mainly due to recombination at CZTS/Molybdenum interface that causes the short-circuit current density loss of 3.6 mA/cm2. An additional source of recombination, inside the absorber layer, affects the short-circuit current density and produces a loss of about 2.1 mA/cm2above this range of absorber thickness. TheJ-Vcharacteristic shows that the performance of the device is also limited by a double diode behavior. This effect is reduced when the absorber layer is skinny. Our investigations showed that, for solar cells having a CZTS absorber layer of thin thickness and high-quality materials (defects density ~1015 cm−3), doping less than 1016 cm−3is especially beneficial. Such CZTS based solar cell devices could lead to conversion efficiencies higher than 15% and to improvement of about 100 mV on the open-circuit voltage value. Our results are in conformity with experimental reports existing in the literature.

Numerical Simulation of Copper Indium Gallium Diselenide Solar Cells Using One Dimensional SCAPS Software

“…It would be observed that the solar cells' performance does not change much when the defect density is below 10 14 cm −3 . This result tallies with the finding of similar study [24] in this regard. Figure 7 shows that all electrical performance parameters start degrading at a defect density of ≈ 10 15 cm −3 .…”

Enhancement of the conversion efficiency of thin film kesterite solar cell

“…6 A conversion efficiency of 15% was reported for the CZTS=CdS structure photovoltaic solar cell in 2016. 22 A conversion efficiency of 18:05% was presented for the CZTS=CdS structure solar cell in 2017. 23 Numerical analysis of the kesterite-based ZnO=CdS=CZTS=Mo solar cell is proposed in this work, and SCAP-1D is used for the simulation of a solar cell.…”

Enhancement of the Efficiency of the CZTS/Cds/Zno/ITO Solar Cell By Back Reflection and Buffer Layers Using SCAPS -1D

“…This is due to the different mechanisms of loss resulting from the nature of absorption. Therefore, the effects of thickness, doping, and defects must be analyzed to increase the efficiency of the cell [2]. New compounds can be studied by replacing Zn with certain elements (e.g.…”