Modeling and Investigation of Rear-Passivated Ultrathin CIGS Solar Cell

In this paper, we use numerical simulations to investigate ultrathin Cu (In1−xGax) Se2 solar cells. In the first part, we focus on the cell configuration in which the PV parameters fit and match the fabricated cell characteristics. Our goal is to investigate the impact of different loss mechanisms,...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Electronics (Basel) 2023-02, Vol.12 (3), p.758
Main Authors: Boukortt, Nour El I., Patanè, Salvatore, Adouane, Mabrouk
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Absorbers
Aluminum oxide
Carrier traps
Copper compounds
Copper indium gallium selenides
Defects
Density
Design and construction
Efficiency
Influence
Investigations
Materials
Mathematical models
Mathematical optimization
Optimization
Photovoltaic cells
Silicon devices
Simulation
Solar batteries
Solar cells
Tandem configuration
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:In this paper, we use numerical simulations to investigate ultrathin Cu (In1−xGax) Se2 solar cells. In the first part, we focus on the cell configuration in which the PV parameters fit and match the fabricated cell characteristics. Our goal is to investigate the impact of different loss mechanisms, such as interface trap density (Dit) and absorber trap density (Nt), in different cell pitch sizes on cell performances. Dit defines the number of carrier traps at CIGS/Al2O3 interfaces to recombine with photogenerated carriers. Nt defines the number of carrier traps in the absorber layer. Recombination through traps has been found to be the primary loss process in the investigated cell. Additional numerical simulations reveal appreciable gains in cell performance for various cell pitch sizes, absorber doping densities, Ga content, and graded bandgap under AM1.5 illumination. Research during the recent decade has clarified that the most promising strategy to achieve maximum efficiency consists of the so-called tandem configuration. Therefore, we here propose a u-CIGS/PERT silicon device employing, as a top cell, a u-CIGS cell optimized to take into account the above procedure. The results of these simulations provide insights into the optimization of ultrathin-film CIGS solar cells.
ISSN:2079-9292
2079-9292
DOI:10.3390/electronics12030758