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Investigation of Interface and Grain Boundary Recombination in mc/pc-Si Solar Cells for Flexible Substrate

Investigation of Interface and Grain Boundary Recombination in mc/pc-Si Solar Cells for Flexible... One of the primary culprits for limiting the efficiency of multi-crystalline/polycrystalline silicon (mc/pc-Si)-based thin-film solar cells is interface and grain boundary (GB) recombination. In this work, a device simulation model for mc/pc-Si thin-film solar cells has been developed by considering multiple numbers of horizontal- and vertical-like GBs with Gaussian distributed energy levels of donor- and acceptor-like traps. Moreover, the Gaussian distribution of bulk and fixed energy level of interface defect density have been considered in this study. The performance parameters of the device, such as JSC, VOC, FF, and efficiency, have been studied by varying the grain size, interface trap density, and GB trap density. Results show that the grain size variation in the X-direction significantly impacts the device’s performance compared to the grain size in the Z-direction. Results also show that increasing interface and GB trap density for both the donor- and acceptor-like traps significantly impacts the efficiency. However, the variation of donor-like trap density has more significant impact on the device’s performance in contrast to the acceptor-like trap density. Therefore, optimizing these parameters is essential to enhance the performance of the device. Moreover, it is observed that the device’s performance significantly depends on the thickness and doping concentration of the absorber layer. For an optimized absorber of thickness 0.5 µm and doping concentration of 1018 cm−3, the maximum efficiency of ~ 9.1% is obtained, which is an enhancement of > 200% from an experimentally reported result. The developed model is also verified with the available experimental results. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering Springer Journals

Investigation of Interface and Grain Boundary Recombination in mc/pc-Si Solar Cells for Flexible Substrate

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Publisher
Springer Journals
Copyright
Copyright © King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals 2023. Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
ISSN
2193-567X
eISSN
2191-4281
DOI
10.1007/s13369-023-07932-4
Publisher site
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Abstract

One of the primary culprits for limiting the efficiency of multi-crystalline/polycrystalline silicon (mc/pc-Si)-based thin-film solar cells is interface and grain boundary (GB) recombination. In this work, a device simulation model for mc/pc-Si thin-film solar cells has been developed by considering multiple numbers of horizontal- and vertical-like GBs with Gaussian distributed energy levels of donor- and acceptor-like traps. Moreover, the Gaussian distribution of bulk and fixed energy level of interface defect density have been considered in this study. The performance parameters of the device, such as JSC, VOC, FF, and efficiency, have been studied by varying the grain size, interface trap density, and GB trap density. Results show that the grain size variation in the X-direction significantly impacts the device’s performance compared to the grain size in the Z-direction. Results also show that increasing interface and GB trap density for both the donor- and acceptor-like traps significantly impacts the efficiency. However, the variation of donor-like trap density has more significant impact on the device’s performance in contrast to the acceptor-like trap density. Therefore, optimizing these parameters is essential to enhance the performance of the device. Moreover, it is observed that the device’s performance significantly depends on the thickness and doping concentration of the absorber layer. For an optimized absorber of thickness 0.5 µm and doping concentration of 1018 cm−3, the maximum efficiency of ~ 9.1% is obtained, which is an enhancement of > 200% from an experimentally reported result. The developed model is also verified with the available experimental results.

Journal

Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering – Springer Journals

Published: Jan 1, 2024

Keywords: Technology computer-aided design (TCAD); Numerical modeling; Grain boundary recombination; Interface recombination; Thin-film; Multi-crystalline silicon; Polycrystalline silicon; Solar cell

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