A Comprehensive Perspective on the Fabrication of CuGaSe2/Si Tandem Solar Cells

Abstract

This review points out the current need for further research on tandem solar cells as the commercial single‐junction solar cell technologies report close to their maximum performance limit. First, the conceptual insight and the desired interconnection schemes for tandem solar cells are briefly presented. Then, a comprehensive discussion on the structural, optical, and electronic properties of CuGaSe2, evaluating its use as a top cell absorber material, is presented. Furthermore, the current status and the critical analysis of CuGaSe2 solar cells, which finds that the adapted conventional device architecture possesses severe limitations, are presented. Based on the drawbacks of the existing materials in use, new materials to fabricate CuGaSe2 solar cells are proposed. Also, tandem configurations with newly proposed CuGaSe2 solar cell architecture by choosing Si photovoltaics as bottom cells are devised. In the end, further challenges in the devised tandem configurations with a focus on their band alignments are elucidated.