Optimization of the CIGS based thin film solar cells: Numerical simulation and analysis

Movla, Hossein

doi:10.1016/j.ijleo.2013.06.034

Cited by 111 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…SCAP calculates solutions of Poison's equation for electrostatic potential ψ and the continuity equations for electrons and holes at steady state with boundary conditions [20,21] and in the frequency domain [22,23].…”

Section: Basic Equationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Boosting the Performance of Solar Cells with Intermediate Band Absorbers—The Case of ZnTe:O

Skhouni¹,

Manouni²,

Bayad³

et al. 2017

JEPE

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This work reports on modeling IB (intermediate band) solar cells based on ZnTe:O semiconductor and determination of their photovoltaic parameters using SCAPS (solar cell capacitance simulator) software. A comparative study between photovoltaic performance of ZnTe and ZnTe:O based solar cells has been carried out. It has been found that the energy conversion efficiency η, short-circuit current density J sc , EQE (external quantum efficiency) and FF (fill factor) increased with increasing oxygen doping concentration N t up to the shallow acceptor density N A and decreased when N t was higher than N A . The open circuit-voltage V oc remained constant for N t lower than the acceptor doping concentration N A and decreased for N t higher than N A . The increase of η, J sc and FF is due to the fact that IB is fully empted, so sub-bandgap photons can be absorbed by hole photoemission process from the VB (valence band) to the IB. The decrease of η, J sc , EQE and FF is attributed to overcompensation for the base doping N A making electron photoemission process from IB to the CB (conduction band) maximized. This indicates that there is a competition between oxygen doping and intrinsic acceptor defects. The optimal concentrations of oxygen and shallow acceptor carriers were found to be N t ≈ 10 15 cm -3 and N A ≈ 10 14 cm -3 . The corresponding photovoltaic parameters were η = 41.5%, J sc = 31.2 mA/cm 2 , V oc = 1.80 V and FF = 75.1%. Finally, the EQE spectra showed a blue shift of absorption edge indicating that the absorption process is extended to the sub-bandgap photons through IB.

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Section: Basic Equationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Boosting the Performance of Solar Cells with Intermediate Band Absorbers—The Case of ZnTe:O

Skhouni¹,

Manouni²,

Bayad³

et al. 2017

JEPE

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“…SCAPS calculates solution of the basic semi-conductor equations in one dimensional and in steady state conditions [15]. These are Poison's equation for electrostatic potential  , and the continuity equations for electrons and holes with the approximate boundary conditions [15,16].…”

Section: Numerical Simulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Table 1 [1,15,[17][18][19][20][21] summarizes the parameters of the different layers used in this paper in accordance with Fig. 1.…”

Section: Numerical Simulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical Simulation of Cu(In,Ga)Se2 Solar Cells Performances

Oubda¹,

Kébré²,

Zougmoré³

et al. 2015

JEPE

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This paper presents a numerical characterization of copper-indium-gallium-diselenide thin film solar cells using one dimensional simulation program (SCAPS-1D). We have performed an optimization of the performances of the standard Mo/Cu(In,Ga)Se 2 /CdS/ZnO solar cells using current-voltage and quantum efficiency methods. With a CuIn 0.7 Ga 0.3 Se 2 absorber, we have investigated the buffer layer thickness, temperature, series and shunt resistances effects on the open-circuit voltage, short-circuit current density, fill factor, conversion efficiency and quantum efficiency. The simulated results show good performances when the thickness of the buffer layer is in the range of 10-40 nm due to the reduction of absorption in the short wavelenghts (380-500 nm). High performances of the model is obtained when the series and shunt resistances is in the range of 0.1-1 Ω·cm² and 1,000 Ω·cm², respectively. Under these conditions, the cell can theoretically operate under an ambiant temperature of 370 K without any loss of its performances.

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“…In principle, in all group III nitride alloys, radiations of energetic particles such as electrons, protons and other ions in space create ultimately the displacement of lattice atoms and these displacements act as unwanted doping of semiconductor alloys. It was shown that amphoteric defects are based on the discovery that the introduction of large enough concentrations of native defects always leads to the same ultimate position of the Fermi energy [6,11] and the study of effects of these defects on the semiconductor device efficiency is a paramount factor in device fabrication and cost management processes [11,20].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hence, a p-layer thickness value of 80 to 100 nm was accepted from modeling of energy bands in PC1D [18,21], and we assumed that the p-type thickness is 100 nm and n-region is 150 nm. We have modeled the J-V characteristics, FF, and g of p-i-n InGaN solar cell with the numerical simulation package SCAPS [20,22,23], and the correspondence codes have been written in MATLAB simulation software. This paper presents results obtained by numerical simulation package SCAPS in InGaN p-i-n solar cell with the different amphoteric defects in p-, n-and i-regions and investigates how these types of defects affect cell performance.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A study on the effects of amphoteric defect concentration on the characteristics parameters of In x Ga1−x N thin-film solar cells

2016

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Group III nitride semiconductors can partly cover the solar spectrum from ultraviolet to infrared spectra due to their ability to vary their band gap. These semiconductors have a substantial potential to develop ultrahigh efficiency solar cells. However, defects have a profound effect on their power conversion efficiency. Since defects lead to dramatic changes in electronic and optoelectronic properties, controlling process to get acceptable defects density in solar cells is a noteworthy parameter in technological and device applications. This paper indicates a numerical simulation study to optimize the p-i-n InGaN homojunction solar cells by investigation of defect density in the whole cell structure. In this study, we assumed that the p-region and n-region thicknesses are 100 and 150 nm, respectively, and the optimized value of cell thickness is 1.3 lm. Similarly, we chose amphoteric defect density from 10 15 to 10 19 cm -3 , and then the effects of defects density on characteristic parameters of cell have been studied. Based on our results, when the amphoteric defect concentration is below the 10 15 cm -3 , constant value for FF values in all layers was obtained. Therefore, cell efficiency remains the same in lower amphoteric defect density where all FF, V OC and J SC are constant. By increasing the amphoteric defect density from 10 15 cm -3 , the cell efficiency falls down dramatically from 20 to about 1 % at 10 19 cm -3 . In our simulated structure, the cell efficiency parameter decreases with increasing the defects density until it reaches the 10 15 cm -3 . Above this value, no change in the parameters was observed. Our results revealed that the high defect density range 10 15 -10 19 cm -3 may be an equally significant cause of performance loss.

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Optimization of the CIGS based thin film solar cells: Numerical simulation and analysis

Cited by 111 publications

References 28 publications

Boosting the Performance of Solar Cells with Intermediate Band Absorbers—The Case of ZnTe:O

Boosting the Performance of Solar Cells with Intermediate Band Absorbers—The Case of ZnTe:O

Numerical Simulation of Cu(In,Ga)Se2 Solar Cells Performances

A study on the effects of amphoteric defect concentration on the characteristics parameters of In x Ga1−x N thin-film solar cells

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