An Extended Approach on Power Conversion Efficiency Enhancement Through Deposition of ZnS-Al2S3 Blends on Silicon Solar Cells

• Published in: Journal of electronic materials 2020-10, Vol.49 (10), p.5937-5946
• Main Authors: Velu Kaliyannan, Gobinath, Palanisamy, Senthil Velmurugan, Rathanasamy, Rajasekar, Palanisamy, Manivasakan, Nagarajan, Nithyavathy, Sivaraj, Santhosh, Anbupalani, Manju Sri
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aluminum sulfide; Antireflection coatings; Carrier density; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry and Materials Science; Crystallites; Electron mobility; Electronics and Microelectronics; Energy conversion efficiency; Hall effect; Instrumentation; Materials Science; Maximum power; Operating temperature; Optical and Electronic Materials; Photovoltaic cells; Radio frequency; Room temperature; Silicon; Solar cells; Solid State Physics; Thin films; Zinc sulfide
• ISSN: 0361-5235; 1543-186X
• DOI: 10.1007/s11664-020-08361-x

Transparent zinc sulfide (ZnS)-aluminium sulfide (Al 2 S 3 ) composite thin-films are deposited on silicon solar cells through radio frequency (RF) sputtering method at room temperature to investigate the structural, optical, electrical, and thermal characteristics. X-ray diffraction analysis reveals the presence of the powder sample (ZnS-Al 2 S 3 ) and its average crystallite size is 15.83 nm. The minimum electrical resistivity ( ρ ), maximum hall mobility ( μ ), and carrier concentration (N) of ZnS-Al 2 S 3 nano-layer coated solar cells are measured to be 2.98 × 10 −3  Ω cm, 14.89 cm 2  V −1  s −1 and 24.88 × 10 20  cm −3 respectively. For a time period of 25 min, ZnS-Al 2 S 3 nano-layer sputter coating produces the maximum power conversion efficiencies (PCE) of 19.38% and 21%, obtained at open and controlled atmospheric conditions, respectively. The influence of operating temperature at both these open and controlled atmospheric conditions for ZnS-Al 2 S 3 nano-layer coated silicon solar cells is observed. The ZnS-Al 2 S 3 composite demonstrates the properties of a desirable anti-reflection coating material for enhancing the PCE of solar cells.