Analysis of CIGS-based thin film tandem solar cell with ZnS buffer layers
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Analysis of CIGS‑based thin film tandem solar cell with ZnS buffer layers Farhood Rasouli1 · Mohammad R. Madani1 Received: 29 January 2020 / Accepted: 8 October 2020 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract In this paper, a thin film tandem solar cell based on CGS/CIGS structure incorporating ZnS buffer layers has been designed and its performance characteristics were obtained using Silvaco-Atlas 2D numerical simulator. A tandem cell with CdS buffer layers was also modeled and simulated with the same method for reference. Our results show that the tandem solar cell with ZnS buffer layers has a maximum conversion efficiency of 28.34% compared to a maximum conversion efficiency of 26.85% obtained for CdS-based tandem solar cell used as a reference. The maximum conversion efficiency for theoretically studied CdSbased tandem solar cell found in literature is 26.21%. Thus, ZnS can be used as a potential replacement for CdS that is notoriously known as a highly toxic compound. Optimum values of doping concentration and thickness are obtained for all layers of the solar cell. In addition, the effect of temperature on ZnS-based CGS/CIGS tandem cell was studied. Keywords Thin film solar cell · CIGS solar cell · CGS/CIGS tandem solar cell · ZnS buffer layer · Conversion efficiency
1 Introduction Highly efficient and cost-effective thin film solar cells have attracted more attention over the past several years as a potential replacement of existing silicon-based solar cells which are widely used in solar cell industry (Lee and Ebong 2017; Xue et al. 2017; Dhakal et al. 2014). Thin film solar cells need low temperature processes, lower material consumption as well as shorter deposition times and provide the possibility of being flexible (Mahabaduge et al. 2015). One of the promising materials for making thin film solar cells is copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS), a chalcopyrite compound having a direct bandgap in the range of 1.04–1.68 eV depending on Ga content (Huang 2008). CIGS compounds possess radiation hardness, long-term stability and their high absorption coefficients allow a thin layer of them to absorb a major portion of the solar spectrum. Recently, there have been reports on achieving record efficiencies of 22.9% and 23.35% for CIGS-based solar cells (Katu et al. 2018; Solar * Mohammad R. Madani [email protected] 1
Microelectronic Research Laboratory, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, LA, USA
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Frontier 2019). Single-junction solar cells are easy to fabricate and therefore cost-effective but their efficiencies are restricted by the Shockley Queisser limit (Shockley and Queisser 1961). Achieving beyond the Shockley Queisser limit for conversion efficiency requires using more than one junction in solar cells. Tandem solar cells comprising of two single-junction cells that are monolithically integrated or mechanically stacked offer
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