Faisal Baig

Enhancement of the conversion efficiency of thin film kesterite solar cell

C u 2 ZnSn S 4 ( CZTS ) is a non-toxic earth abundant material and a promising quaternary semiconductor compound of groups I − I I − I V − V I having a kesterite symmetrical structure. Due to its optimum direct bandgap, it has been considered as a suitable material for absorber layers for photovoltaic cell applications. This paper presents the numerical simulation and modeling of CZTS based thin film kesterite photovoltaic cells using SCAP-1D software. The influence of device parameters such as the carrier concentration, thickness, densities of absorber, buffer and window layers, defect densities and the temperature effect on the performance of the Z n O / C d S / CZTS / M o photovoltaic cell structure are analyzed. Defect densities are added to the absorber layer and the interface between the buffer layer and the absorber layer. This type of solar cell does not comprise any toxic material and can lead to non-toxic thin film photovoltaic cells with outstanding optical properties. In this work, promising optimized results had been achieved with a conversion efficiency of 23.72%, a fill factor of 82.54%, a short-circuit current ( J s c ) of 44.87 mA / cm 2, and an open circuit voltage ( V o c ) of 0.64V. C u 2 ZnSn S 4 ( CZTS ) is a non-toxic earth abundant material and a promising quaternary semiconductor compound of groups I − I I − I V − V I having a kesterite symmetrical structure. Due to its optimum direct bandgap, it has been considered as a suitable material for absorber layers for photovoltaic cell applications. This paper presents the numerical simulation and modeling of CZTS based thin film kesterite photovoltaic cells using SCAP-1D software. The influence of device parameters such as the carrier concentration, thickness, densities of absorber, buffer and window layers, defect densities and the temperature effect on the performance of the Z n O / C d S / CZTS / M o photovoltaic cell structure are analyzed. Defect densities are added to the absorber layer and the interface between the buffer layer and the absorber layer. This type of solar cell does not comprise any toxic material and can lead to non-toxic thin film photovoltaic cells with outstanding optical properties. In this wor...

Effect of Cu2O hole transport layer and improved minority carrier life time on the efficiency enhancement of Cu2NiSnS4 based experimental solar cell

C u 2 NiSn S 4 is a non-toxic earth abundant material and a promising quaternary semiconductor compound. Due to its optimum direct band gap, it has been considered as a suitable absorber material for photovoltaic cells. It is a conspicuous and suitable class of material for the fabrication of low cost and high efficiency thin film devices. This paper presents numerical modeling for the efficiency enhancement of C u 2 NiSn S 4 based experimental photovoltaic cells. In this work, the experimental cell results were reproduced in the SCAPS software. These simulated results are validated and compared with the experimental reference cell. C u 2 O as the hole transport layer is also proposed for further efficiency enhancement of the photovoltaic cell. After optimization of cell parameters, the power conversion efficiency of an optimized device is increased up to 4.60%. By applying the hole transport layer and analyzing the minority carrier life time, the conversion efficiency increases up to 10.35%. This work presents a novel concept in numerical modeling by analyzing the experimental solar cell, which will categorically offer new directions for the fabrication of high efficiency photovoltaic devices. C u 2 NiSn S 4 is a non-toxic earth abundant material and a promising quaternary semiconductor compound. Due to its optimum direct band gap, it has been considered as a suitable absorber material for photovoltaic cells. It is a conspicuous and suitable class of material for the fabrication of low cost and high efficiency thin film devices. This paper presents numerical modeling for the efficiency enhancement of C u 2 NiSn S 4 based experimental photovoltaic cells. In this work, the experimental cell results were reproduced in the SCAPS software. These simulated results are validated and compared with the experimental reference cell. C u 2 O as the hole transport layer is also proposed for further efficiency enhancement of the photovoltaic cell. After optimization of cell parameters, the power conversion efficiency of an optimized device is increased up to 4.60%. By applying the hole transport layer and analyzing the minority carrier life time, the conversion efficiency increases up to...

Effect of CdTe Back Surface Field on the Efficiency Enhancement of a CGS Based Thin Film Solar Cell

Numerical analysis of the proposed solar cell is based on cadmium telluride (CdTe) and copper gallium sulfide (CuGaS2), also known as CGS, is proposed in this research work. Performance of a CdTe/CGS/CdS/ZnO cell is analyzed in Solar Cell Capacitance Simulator (SCAPS) software, by changing the physical parameters like doping density of acceptor, doping density of donor, absorber thickness and buffer thickness. The cell structure is in the same order as the CGS/CdS/ZnO with CdTe used for the back surface field layer. Power conversion efficiency of the CGS/CdS/ZnO solar cell without CdTe is 10.578% (with FFu2009=u200983.70%, Vocu2009=u20090.82xa0V, Jscu2009=u200915.40xa0mA/cm2) and conversion efficiency of CdTe/CGS/CdS/ZnO is 28.20% (with FFu2009=u200977.66%, Vocu2009=u20091.22xa0V, Jscu2009=u200929.63xa0mA/cm3). The overall investigation and simulation results from the modeling of a proposed device in SCAPS is very useful for the understanding of the fundamentals of photovoltaic devices and gives feedback to engineers and designers for the fabrication of CdTe/CGS based solar cells.

Efficiency Enhancement of CH 3 NH 3 SnI 3 Solar Cells by Device Modeling

Lead halide perovskite solar cells (LHPSC) have great potential, with conversion efficiency exceeding 20%. However, their toxic nature and difficult fabrication prevent their consideration for commercial applications. To address this, numerical analysis was performed to propose a structure for lead-free perovskite solar cells with MASnI3 as absorber layer. Device modeling for Cd1−xZnxS as electron transport layer (ETL) and methylamine tin halide as hole transport layer (HTL) was carried out using a solar cell capacitance simulator. The simulation results revealed the dependence of the open-circuit voltage (VOC), short-circuit current (JSC), fill factor (FF), and power conversion efficiency on the HTL valence-band offset, absorber layer thickness, absorber layer doping concentration, ETL band offset, minority-carrier diffusion length, and defects at the HTL–absorber and absorber–ETL interfaces. An optimum absorber layer thickness was confirmed, being well consistent with the range for practical absorber layer designs. Moreover, conversion efficiency of 18.71% was found for absorber thickness of 500xa0nm and doping concentration of 1u2009×u20091016xa0cm−3. These results will provide important guidelines for design of low-cost perovskite solar cells.