scholarly journals Analysis of the High Conversion Efficienciesβ-FeSi2and BaSi2n-i-p Thin Film Solar Cells

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jung-Sheng Huang ◽  
Kuan-Wei Lee ◽  
Yu-Hsiang Tseng

Bothβ-FeSi2and BaSi2are silicides and have large absorption coefficients; thus they are very promising Si-based new materials for solar cell applications. In this paper, the dcI-Vcharacteristics of n-Si/i-βFeSi2/p-Si and n-Si/i-BaSi2/p-Si thin film solar cells are investigated by solving the charge transport equations with optical generations. The diffusion current densities of free electron and hole are calculated first. Then the drift current density in the depletion regions is obtained. The total current density is the sum of diffusion and drift current densities. The conversion efficiencies are obtained from the calculatedI-Vcurves. The optimum conversion efficiency of n-Si/i-βFeSi2/p-Si thin film solar cell is 27.8% and that of n-Si/i-BaSi2/p-Si thin film solar cell is 30.4%, both are larger than that of Si n-i-p solar cell (ηis 20.6%). These results are consistent with their absorption spectrum. The calculated conversion efficiency of Si n-i-p solar cell is consistent with the reported researches. Therefore, these calculation results are valid in this work.

RSC Advances ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (95) ◽  
pp. 77565-77571 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thi Hiep Nguyen ◽  
Wilman Septina ◽  
Shotaro Fujikawa ◽  
Feng Jiang ◽  
Takashi Harada ◽  
...  

A CZTS-based thin film solar cell with a powder conversion efficiency of 5.8% was obtained by using facile spray pyrolysis deposition followed by annealing.


2011 ◽  
Vol 685 ◽  
pp. 60-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shui Yang Lien ◽  
Meng Jia Yang ◽  
Yang Shih Lin ◽  
Chia Fu Chen ◽  
Po Hung Lin ◽  
...  

It is widely accepted that graded buffer layer between the p-layer and i-layer increase the efficiency of amorphous silicon solar cells. The open-circuit voltage (Voc), short current density (Jsc) and fill factor (FF) of the thin film solar cell are obviously increased. In the present study, hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) thin film solar cells have been fabricated by 27.12 MHz plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). We discussed the three conditions at the p/i interface without buffer layer, buffer layer and graded buffer layer of thin film solar cells by TCAD software. The influences of the performance of the solar cell with the different buffer layer are investigated. The cell with graded buffer layer has higher efficiency compared with the cells without buffer layer and buffer layer. The graded buffer layer enhances the conversion efficiency of the solar cell by improving Vocand FF. It could be attributed to a reduction of interface recombination rate near the junction. The best performance of conversion efficiency (η)=8.57% (Voc=0.81 V, Jsc=15.46 mA/cm2, FF=68%) of the amorphous silicon thin film solar cell was achieved.


Author(s):  
M. Boostandoost ◽  
U. Kerst ◽  
C. Boit

Abstract The temperature dependence of photocurrent of polycrystalline Si (poly-Si) thin-film solar cells on glass with interdigitated mesa structure has been locally investigated using Infrared Light Beam Induced Current (IR-LBIC) in the temperature range of -25 to +70 °C. The temperature dependence of electrical characteristics of poly-Si thin-film solar cells in reverse bias has been also analysed and compared with the monocrystalline thin-film solar cells. The poly-Si solar cell shows a temperature coefficient (TC) for the photocurrent of around +0.8 and +0.6 %/°C in the grain interior and grain boundary, respectively. The activation energy of the reverse current and also the photocurrent due to the IR laser stimulation has been evaluated, which provide information about traps and their energy levels in the absorber layer of the poly-Si thin-film solar cell. The obtained average value of the activation energy associated with the photocurrent of the poly-Si cell suggests the existence of a shallow acceptor level at around 0.045 eV in the grain boundary and 0.062 eV in the grain interior of the absorber layer of the poly-Si thin-film solar cell. The activation energies of the reverse current for poly-Si and monocrystalline cells have been calculated when the device is biased at -1 and -2 V and the results compared with the activation energy of the saturation current obtained from extrapolation of the I-V curve in the SRH (Shockley-Read-Hall) regime. The results show strong voltage dependence. In both cases the activation energy of the reverse current decreases in the reverse bias voltage, approaching the values obtained from the photocurrent.


2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 211-214
Author(s):  
Boyang Qu ◽  
Peng Zhang ◽  
Jianmin Luo ◽  
Shie Yang ◽  
Yongsheng Chen

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate a light-trapping structure based on Ag nanograting for amorphous silicon (a-Si) thin-film solar cell. Silver nanopillar arrays on indium tin oxide layer of the a-Si thin-film solar cells were designed. Design/methodology/approach The effects of the geometrical parameters such as nanopillar radius (R) and array period (P) were investigated by using the finite element simulation. Findings The optimization results show that the absorption of the solar cell with Ag nanopillar structure and anti-reflection film is enhanced up to 29.5 per cent under AM1.5 illumination in the 300- to 800-nm wavelength range compared with the reference cell. Furthermore, physical mechanisms of absorption enhancement at different wavelength range are discussed according to the electrical field amplitude distributions in the solar cells. Research limitations/implications The research is still in progress. Further studies mainly focus on the performance of solar cells with different nanograting materials. Practical implications This study provides a feasible method for light-trapping structure based on Ag nanograting for a-Si thin-film solar cell. Originality/value This study is promising for the design of a-Si thin-film solar cells with enhanced performance.


RSC Advances ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (8) ◽  
pp. 6562-6570 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fang Qin Zeng ◽  
Yan Qing Lai ◽  
Zi Li Han ◽  
Boon K. Ng ◽  
Zhi An Zhang ◽  
...  

A CZTSSe thin film solar cell was fabricated by a sol–gel method with an efficiency of 8.08%.


2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 527-533
Author(s):  
Mohsen Sajadnia ◽  
Sajjad Dehghani ◽  
Zahra Noraeepoor ◽  
Mohammad Hossein Sheikhi

Purpose The purpose of this study is to design and optimize copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) thin film solar cells. Design/methodology/approach A novel bi-layer CIGS thin film solar cell based on SnS is designed. To improve the performance of the CIGS based thin film solar cell a tin sulfide (SnS) layer is added to the structure, as back surface field and second absorbing layer. Defect recombination centers have a significant effect on the performance of CIGS solar cells by changing recombination rate and charge density. Therefore, performance of the proposed structure is investigated in two stages successively, considering typical and maximum reported trap density for both CIGS and SnS. To achieve valid results, the authors use previously reported experimental parameters in the simulations. Findings First by considering the typical reported trap density for both SnS and CIGS, high efficiency of 36%, was obtained. Afterward maximum reported trap densities of 1 × 1019 and 5.6 × 1015 cm−3 were considered for SnS and CIGS, respectively. The efficiency of the optimized cell is 27.17% which is achieved in CIGS and SnS thicknesses of cell are 0.3 and 0.1 µm, respectively. Therefore, even in this case, the obtained efficiency is well greater than previous structures while the absorbing layer thickness is low. Originality/value Having results similar to practical CIGS solar cells, the impact of the defects of SnS and CIGS layers was investigated. It was found that affixing SnS between CIGS and Mo layers causes a significant improvement in the efficiency of CIGS thin-film solar cell.


2014 ◽  
Vol 1638 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongtao Cui ◽  
Xiaolei Liu ◽  
Xiaojing Hao ◽  
Fangyang Liu ◽  
Ning Song ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTThe focus of this work is on back contact improvement for sputtered CZTS thin film solar cells. Three methods have been investigated including a thin Ag coating, a thin ZnO coating on the Mo back contact and rapid thermal annealing of the back contact. All of these methods have been found to reduce defects such as voids as well as secondary phases at the back contact region and inhibit the formation of MoS2. Consequently all the mothods effectively enhances Voc, Jsc, FF and therefore efficiency significantly.


2015 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 1269-1275 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qingwen Tian ◽  
Lijian Huang ◽  
Wangen Zhao ◽  
Yanchun Yang ◽  
Gang Wang ◽  
...  

An aqueous solution deposited Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 thin film solar cell with a photoelectric conversion of 6.62% was fabricated.


2013 ◽  
Vol 712-715 ◽  
pp. 309-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ming Kun Xu

P+a-SiC/ I nc-Si/N+a-Si structure solar cells is simulated by AMPS-1D program package to characterize the new thin film solar cell. In order to analyze the characteristics of the device, the thickness of layer are considered. The results show that the thickness of layer and the value of layer have a great effect on the conversion efficiency. Our results suggest a high performance P a-SiC/ I nc-Si/N a-Si structure solar cells with high efficiency of 14.411% and fill factor of 0.738. The simulation result is potentially valuable in exploring gradual bandgap P+a-SiC/I nc-Si/N+a-Si structure solar cells with high performance.


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