Simulation analysis of functional MoSe2 layer for ultra-thin Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells architecture

The influence of Molybdenum diselenide transition metal dichalcogenide material (p-type MoSe2 TMDC) as an interfacial layer between the ultra-thin Cu (In, Ga)Se2 (CIGS) absorber layer, with thickness less than 500[Formula: see text]nm, and molybdenum back contact was studied using SCAPS-1D simulation package. The possible effects of the p-MoSe2 layer on the electrical properties and the photovoltaic parameters of the CIGS thin-film solar cells have been investigated. Band gap energy, carrier concentration, and the layer thickness of the p-MoSe2 were varied in this study. The optimum band gap is found to be of 1.3 eV. Interfacial layers of thicknesses less than 200 nm have been found to cause deterioration for the overall cell performance. This might be attributed to the increase in the back-contact recombination current and the reduction of the built-in potential at p-MoSe2/CIGS junction. Furthermore, the MoSe2 layer would form the so-called back surface field (BSF), due to the associated wider band gap with respect to that of CIGS absorber layer. Additionally, the simulation of the I–V characteristic showed a higher slope which implies that MoSe2 layer at the CIGS/Mo interface acts in a beneficial way on the CIGS/Mo hetero-contact adapting it from Schottky type contact to quasi-ohmic contact. The conversion efficiency has increased significantly from 14.61% to 22.08%, without and with the MoSe2 layer, respectively. These findings are very promising for future high performance and cost-effective solar cell devices.

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A recent overview on the porphyrin-based π-extended small molecules as donors and acceptors for high-performance organic solar cells

Materials Chemistry Frontiers ◽

10.1039/d1qm00952d ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Venkatesh Piradi ◽

Feng Yan ◽

Xunjin Zhu ◽

Wai-Yeung Raymond Wong

Keyword(s):

Solar Cells ◽

Solar Cell ◽

Small Molecules ◽

Organic Solar Cells ◽

High Performance ◽

Cost Effective ◽

Effective Alternative ◽

The Past ◽

Cost Effective Alternative ◽

Silicon Based

Organic solar cells (OSCs) have been considered as a promising cost-effective alternative to silicon-based solar cell counterparts due to their lightweight, mechanical flexibility, and easy fabrication features. Over the past...

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Band-gap-graded Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 drives high efficient solar cells

Energy & Environmental Science ◽

10.1039/d1ee03134a ◽

2022 ◽

Author(s):

Hongling Guo ◽

Rutao Meng ◽

Gang Wang ◽

Shenghao Wang ◽

Li Wu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Solar Cells ◽

Band Gap ◽

Light Harvesting ◽

Absorber Layer ◽

Photovoltaic Application ◽

High Efficient

Fabrication of high efficient solar cells is critical for photovoltaic application. The bandgap-graded absorber layer can not only drive carriers efficient collection but also improve the light harvesting. However, it...

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Characterization of CuO/n-Si heterojunction solar cells produced by thermal evaporation

Materials Science-Poland ◽

10.2478/msp-2018-0092 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 36 (4) ◽

pp. 668-674 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Reşit Özmenteş ◽

Cabir Temirci ◽

Abdullah Özkartal ◽

Kadir Ejderha ◽

Nezir Yildirim

Keyword(s):

Solar Cells ◽

Band Gap ◽

Thermal Evaporation ◽

Front Surface ◽

Band Gap Energy ◽

Monoclinic Crystal ◽

Photovoltaic Properties ◽

X Ray ◽

Heterojunction Solar Cells ◽

Monoclinic Crystal Structure

AbstractCopper(II) oxide (CuO) in powder form was evaporated thermally on the front surface of an n-Si (1 0 0) single crystal using a vacuum coating unit. Structural investigation of the deposited CuO film was made using X-ray difraction (XRD) and energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX) techniques. It was determined from the obtained results that the copper oxide films exhibited single-phase CuO properties in a monoclinic crystal structure. Transmittance measurement of the CuO film was performed by a UV-Vis spectrophotometer. Band gap energy of the film was determined as 1.74 eV under indirect band gap assumption. Current-voltage (I-V) measurements of the CuO/n-Si heterojunctions were performed under illumination and in the dark to reveal the photovoltaic and electrical properties of the produced samples. From the I-V measurements, it was revealed that the CuO/n-Si heterojunctions produced by thermal evaporation exibit excellent rectifying properties in dark and photovoltaic properties under illumination. Conversion efficiencies of the CuO/n-Si solar cells are comparable to those of CuO/n-Si produced by other methods described in the literature.

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Tunable relativistic quasiparticle electronic and excitonic behavior of the FAPb(I1−xBrx)3 alloy

Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics ◽

10.1039/d0cp00496k ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 22 (21) ◽

pp. 11943-11955 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Zeeshan Muhammad ◽

Peitao Liu ◽

Rashid Ahmad ◽

Saeid Jalali Asadabadi ◽

Cesare Franchini ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Optical Properties ◽

Solar Cells ◽

Band Gap ◽

High Performance ◽

Material Design ◽

Tandem Solar Cells ◽

Excitonic Properties

The quasiparticle and excitonic properties of mixed FAPb(I1−xBrx)3 0 ≤ x ≤ 1 alloys are studied. We show that Br-doping provides an efficient and controllable way to tune the band gap and optical properties, beneficial for material design of high performance tandem solar cells.

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Complex Investigation of High Efficiency and Reliable Heterojunction Solar Cell Based on an Improved Cu2O Absorber Layer

Energies ◽

10.3390/en13184667 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 13 (18) ◽

pp. 4667

Author(s):

Laurentiu Fara ◽

Irinela Chilibon ◽

Ørnulf Nordseth ◽

Dan Craciunescu ◽

Dan Savastru ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Solar Cells ◽

Solar Cell ◽

Reliability Analysis ◽

High Performance ◽

High Efficiency ◽

Absorber Layer ◽

Heterojunction Solar Cell ◽

Complex Investigation ◽

Heterojunction Solar Cells ◽

Conduction Band Offset

This study is aimed at increasing the performance and reliability of silicon-based heterojunction solar cells with advanced methods. This is achieved by a numerical electro-optical modeling and reliability analysis for such solar cells correlated with experimental analysis of the Cu2O absorber layer. It yields the optimization of a silicon tandem heterojunction solar cell based on a ZnO/Cu2O subcell and a c-Si bottom subcell using electro-optical numerical modeling. The buffer layer affinity and mobility together with a low conduction band offset for the heterojunction are discussed, as well as spectral properties of the device model. Experimental research of N-doped Cu2O thin films was dedicated to two main activities: (1) fabrication of specific samples by DC magnetron sputtering and (2) detailed characterization of the analyzed samples. This last investigation was based on advanced techniques: morphological (scanning electron microscopy—SEM and atomic force microscopy—AFM), structural (X-ray diffraction—XRD), and optical (spectroscopic ellipsometry—SE and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy—FTIR). This approach qualified the heterojunction solar cell based on cuprous oxide with nitrogen as an attractive candidate for high-performance solar devices. A reliability analysis based on Weibull statistical distribution establishes the degradation degree and failure rate of the studied solar cells under stress and under standard conditions.

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Review on the degradation and device physics of quantum dot solar cells

Modern Physics Letters B ◽

10.1142/s0217984915300082 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 29 (Supplement 1) ◽

pp. 1530008 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Elham N. Afshar ◽

Rasoul Rouhi ◽

Nima E. Gorji

Keyword(s):

Solar Cells ◽

Quantum Dot ◽

Band Gap ◽

Conversion Efficiency ◽

High Performance ◽

Energy Conversion Efficiency ◽

New Materials ◽

Quantum Dot Solar Cells ◽

Photon Conversion ◽

The Stability

Briefly, we reviewed the latest progress in energy conversion efficiency and degradation rate of the quantum dot (QD) solar cells. QDs are zero dimension nanoparticles with tunable size and accordingly tunable band gap. The maximum performance of the most advanced QD solar cells was reported to be around 10%. Nevertheless, majority of research groups do not investigate the stability of such devices. QDs are cheaper replacements for silicon or other thin film materials with a great potential to significantly increase the photon conversion efficiency via two ways: (i) creating multiple excitons by absorbing a single hot photon, and (ii) formation of intermediate bands (IBs) in the band gap of the background semiconductor that enables the absorption of low energy photons (two-step absorption of sub-band gap photons). Apart from low conversion efficiency, QD solar cells also suffer from instability under real operation and stress conditions. Strain, dislocations and variation in size of the dots (under pressure of the other layers) are the main degradation resources. While some new materials (i.e. perovskites) showed an acceptable high performance, the QD devices are still inefficient with an almost medium rate of 4% (2010) to 10% (2015).

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Simulation study of the a-Si:H/nc-Si:H solar cells performance sensitivity to the TCO work function, the band gap and the thickness of i-a-Si:H absorber layer

Solar Energy ◽

10.1016/j.solener.2015.02.010 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 114 ◽

pp. 408-417 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Abbas Belfar

Keyword(s):

Solar Cells ◽

Work Function ◽

Band Gap ◽

Simulation Study ◽

Absorber Layer ◽

Performance Sensitivity

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Carrier Dynamics in MOVPE-Grown Bulk InGaAsNSb Materials and Epitaxial Lift-Off GaAs Double Heterostructures for Multi-junction Solar Cells

MRS Proceedings ◽

10.1557/opl.2014.370 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 1635 ◽

pp. 55-62

Author(s):

Yongkun Sin ◽

Stephen LaLumondiere ◽

Nathan Wells ◽

Zachary Lingley ◽

Nathan Presser ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Solar Cells ◽

Triple Junction ◽

High Performance ◽

Cost Effective ◽

Carrier Dynamics ◽

Dilute Nitride ◽

Time Resolved ◽

Double Heterostructures ◽

Lift Off ◽

Lattice Matched

ABSTRACTHigh performance and cost effective multi-junction III-V solar cells are attractive for satellite applications. High performance multi-junction solar cells are based on a triple-junction design that employs an InGaP top-junction, a GaAs middle-junction, and a bottom-junction consisting of a 1.0 – 1.25 eV-material. The most attractive 1.0 – 1.25 eV-material is the lattice-matched dilute nitride such as InGaAsN(Sb). A record efficiency of 43.5% was achieved from multi-junction solar cells including dilute nitride materials [1]. In addition, cost effective manufacturing of III-V triple-junction solar cells can be achieved by employing full-wafer epitaxial lift-off (ELO) technology, which enables multiple substrate re-usages. We employed time-resolved photoluminescence (TR-PL) techniques to study carrier dynamics in both pre- and post-ELO processed GaAs double heterostructures (DHs) as well as in MOVPE-grown bulk dilute nitride layers lattice matched to GaAs substrates.

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