No abstract

ZnO thin film is a prominent candidate to be used as a buffer layer in silicon solar cells. In this paper, the effect of Al concentrations (1, 5, 10 wt. %) on the conversion efficiency of Al:ZnO/Si thin film solar cells has been investigated through simulation by SCAPS program. It has been found that the main photovoltaic parameters such as open-circuit voltage, short-circuit current density, fill factor, conversion efficiency, quantum efficiency and ideality factor increased as Al enrichment occurred. At 10 wt. % of Al the optimum conversion efficiency was approximately 7 %, the maximum value of the ideality factor was 17.51, and the bandgap value was 3.56 eV. Additionally, the resistivity, carrier concentration and mobility were determined for all measurements. It has been found that a decrease in the Hall coefficient led to an increase in the carrier concentration with increasing Al content, while an increase in the mobility occurred due to a decrease in the electrical resistivity. The quantum efficiency of the solar cell measured at a wavelength in the range of 400-1000 nm was between 0.4-0.5.