A study on the 2D simulation of Pt/InGaN/GaN/metal Schottky junction solar cell

Abstract

We report on the 2D simulation of the heterojunction-based M/InxGa1-xN/GaN/M Schottky junction solar cell and studied the variations of different factors such as indium mole fraction, thickness, temperature and doping density of the n-InxGa1-xN active layer on the solar cell performance. The current–voltage characteristics have been simulated at various temperatures, in the range from 100 to 700 K. The results show that the value of all the characteristic parameters such as open-circuit voltage, fill factor and conversion efficiency, except short-circuit current density, decreases with increasing temperature. The barrier height and ideality factor of the Pt/In0.21Ga0.79N/GaN/M Schottky junction solar cell have been evaluated from current–voltage characteristics and at 300 K they are 0.53 eV and 0.39, respectively. The photovoltaic output under AM0 sunlight illumination of the optimized Schottky junction solar cell at room temperature is 0.58 V (open-circuit voltage), 5.36 mA cm−2 (short-circuit current density), 67% (fill factor) and 1.55% (conversion efficiency). The behavior of these parameters with the underlying physics is presented.