Papers by Keyword: a-Si:H

Abstract: In this paper, we have investigated the effect of the work function of transparent conducting oxides (TCO) on the performance of a-Si:H p-i-n solar cells, including open circuit voltage (V_OC), short circuit current (J_SC), fill factor (FF) and conversion efficiency, using AFORS-HET software. The simulation has focused on two layers: front contact work function (Φ_TCO-front) and back contact work function (Φ_TCO-back) with various band from 4.7 eV to 5.3 eV and 4.2 eV to 4.9 eV respectively. From the simulation results, we know that the work function of TCO greatly affects the performance of solar cells such as Voc, Jsc, FF and conversion efficiency. By optimization, we arrive at results for V_oc, J_sc, FF and conversion efficiencies of 0.88 V, 8.95 mA / cm², 65% and 5.1% respectively. This result is obtained on Φ_TCO-front 5.2 eV. When Φ_TCO-front 5.2 eV, the value of V_OC, FF and conversion efficiency has been saturated, while the value of the J _sc actually begins to decrease. Furthermore, when the Φ_TCO - back is 4.3 eV, we get the best results for V_OC, J_sc, FF and conversion Efficiency of 0.9 V, 8.96 mA / cm², 73 % and 5.9 % respectively. When Φ_TCO-back 4.3 eV, the value of V_OC, FF and conversion efficiency begins to decrease, while the value of the J_sc does’t change significantly. These optimizations may help in producing low cost high efficiency p-i-n solar cells experimentally.

Abstract: Effect of defect - through observation of energy absorption Urbach, on deposition rate, energy band gap, and surface roughness of intrinsic thin film are investigated using Radio Frequency Plasma Enhance Chemical Vapor Deposition (RF-PECVD). Films are grown on ITO (Indium Tin Oxide) glass substrate. Analysis of energy band gap is conducted to determine changes in the structure of a thin film of a-Si:H. Energy band gap is important to determine the portion of the spectrum of sunlight that is absorbed solar cells. From the characterization using UV-Vis spectrometer and the Tauc’s plot method, the width of the resulting energy band gap is greater if the hydrogen dilution is increased. It can be shown that the increase of the hydrogen dilution, will increase the energy band gap, and the surface roughness of thin layers. Instead, the improvement of the hydrogen dilution decrease the rate of deposition and Urbach energy. It is estimated that with greater hydrogen dilution, an intrinsic thin film of a-Si:H is more conductive for more reduction in residual of band tail defects or dangling bond defects.

Abstract: In this article, simulation results of novel and facilitated heterostructures of the Second Generation (2G) Thin-film Solar Cells (TFSCs): hydrogenated amorphous Silicon (a-Si:H), Cadmium Telluride (CdTe), and Copper Indium Gallium di-Selenide (Cu(In,Ga)Se₂ or CIGS) have been presented to compare their performances. The solar cells have been modeled and analyzed for investigating optimized structure with higher stabilized efficiency. Entire simulations have been accomplished using Analysis of Microelectronic and Photonic Structures – 1 Dimensional (AMPS-1D) device simulator. The thickness of the absorber layer was varied from 50 nm to 1400 nm for a-Si:H and from 50 nm to 3 μm for both CdTe and CIGS cells to realize its impact on cell performance. The utmost efficiency, η of 9.134%, 20.776%, and 23.03% were achieved at AM 1.5 (1000 W/m²) for a-Si:H, CdTe, and CIGS material cells, respectively. Lastly, the operating temperature of the three cells was varied from 280°K to 328°K to realize its effect on the cell PV performances.

Abstract: Key steps in the fabrication of high-efficiency a-Si:H/c-Si heterojunction solar cells are the controlled pyramid texturing of the c-Si substrates to minimize reflection losses and the subsequent passivation by deposition of a high-quality a-Si:H layer to reduce recombination losses. This contribution reviews our recent results on the optimization of the wet-chemical texturing of crystalline Si wafers for the preparation of heterojunction solar cells with respect to low reflection losses, low recombination losses and long minority carrier lifetimes. It is demonstrated, that by joint optimization of both saw damage etch and texture etch the optical and electronic properties of the resulting pyramid morphology can be controlled. Effective surface passivation and thus long minority charge carrier lifetimes are achieved by deposition of intrinsic amorphous Si ((i) a-Si:H) layers. It is shown, that optimized (i) a-Si:H deposition parameters for planar Si (111) wafers can be transferred to a-Si:H layer deposition on random pyramid textured Si (100) wafers. Statistical analysis of the pyramid size distribution revealed that a low fraction of small pyramids leads to longer minority charge carrier lifetimes and, thus, a higher V_oc potential for solar cells.

Abstract: We report for the first time a simple optimization of triple-junction solar cell nc-Si:H/a-Si:H/a-SiGe:H using computer modeling and Robust Design. Firstly we performed a computer modeling of solar cell by wxAMPS software. Subsequently, we investigated the parameters of the solar cell layers and the effect of the solar cell efficiency using Robust Design via Taguchi method, ANOVA and additive model. The results show that the a-Si:H middle absorber cell has the highest contribution of solar cell efficiency at 40.87% and the nc-Si:H n-back layer cell has the second highest contribution of solar cell efficiency at 31.15%. Moreover, the optimum condition for triple-junction solar cell is A₂ B₁ C₂ D₂ with solar cell efficiency at 15.73%. These results indicate that Robust Design succeeded predicting the best condition for optimizing triple-junction solar cell nc-Si:H/a-Si:H/a-SiGe:H.

Abstract: In this paper we developed a recombination model for the steady state photoconductivity (SSP) with the assumption that the correlated dangling bond states (DB) act as the essential recombination centres and the electron recombination proceeds by tunneling from the conduction band tail states (TS) for n-type a-Si:H. The modeled temperature dependence of the SSP presents the main measured features, particularly the small activation energy and the thermal quenching.

Abstract: In the present work, the spectroscopic ellipsometry (1.5 - 5.5 eV) was used to investigate the effects of current density induced microstructural variations and their influence on the electronic states of as-prepared and a-Si:H coated porous silicon (PS). The pseudodielectric responses of the low and high current densities (5 and 40 mA/cm2) were analyzed using a multilayer model within the effective medium approximation. The FTIR investigation reveals the enhancement of surface oxide (Si-Ox) layer with current density and the improvement of the Si-Hx band after a-Si:H coating.

Abstract: A new model is developed for the Staebler-Wronski effect (SWE) in intrinsic a-Si:H. In this model, non-radiative recombination of the photogenerated carriers occurs at a weak bond close to a SiHHSi configuration, which allows a local creation of defect of the SiHD type. This defect can be annihilated by mobile hydrogen atom that has been emitted from an other distant SiHD defect as a result of non-radiative recombination at this defect site. In this study we have considered illumination intensities in the moderate and intense illumination range. In both cases, the proposed model reproduces many experimental features of the SWE known in the literature.