Based on Ultrathin PEDOT:PSS/c-Ge Solar Cells Design and Their Photoelectric Performance

Ju Su,Zao Yi,Yijun Tang,Hua Yang,Li Liu,Fei Zhao,Pinghui Wu,Hailiang Li,Yan Xu,Fusheng Zheng

doi:10.3390/coatings11070748

Abstract

In recent years, nanostructures have improved the performance of solar cells and are regarded as the most promising microstructures. The optical properties of PEDOT:PSS/c-Ge hybrid solar cells (HSCs) based on the octagon germanium nanoparticles (O-GNPs) were numerically analyzed using the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. The optimal structure of the hybrid solar cell is determined by changing the thickness of the organic layer and structural parameters of nanoparticles to enhance the optical absorption and eventually achieve high broadband absorption. By changing the structure parameter of O-GNPs, we studied its effect on solar cells. The optimization of geometric parameters is based on maximum absorption. The light absorption of our optimized HSCs is basically above 90% between 200 and 1500 nm. PEDOT:PSS is placed on top of O-GNPs to transmit the holes better, allowing O-GNPs to capture a lot of photons, to increase absorbance value properties in the AM1.5 solar spectral irradiated region. The transmittance is increased by adding poly-methyl methacrylate (PMMA). At the same time, the electrical characteristics of Ge solar cells were simulated by DEVICE, and short-circuit current (Jsc), open-circuit voltage (Voc), maximum power (Pmax), filling coefficient (FF) and photoelectric conversion efficiency (PCE) were obtained. According to the optimization results after adjusting the structural parameters, the maximum short-circuit current is 44.32 mA/cm2; PCE is 7.84 mW/cm2; FF is 69%. The results show that the O-GNPs have a good light trapping effect, and the structure design has great potential for the absorption of HSCs; it is believed that the conversion efficiency will be further improved through further research.

Highlights

With the continuous development of the social economy and the continuous progress of human civilization, the human demand for energy has been developing rapidly
Ge-based multijunction solar cells are used in space and concentrator photovoltaics (CPV) applications [10,11]
Lu et al proposed that the absorption of Si/PEDOT:PSS core/shell nanowire arrays for efficient hybrid solar cells is about 88%, and the photoelectric conversion efficiency (PCE) reaches 6.35% [32]

Summary

Introduction

With the continuous development of the social economy and the continuous progress of human civilization, the human demand for energy has been developing rapidly. Lu et al proposed that the absorption of Si/PEDOT:PSS core/shell nanowire arrays for efficient hybrid solar cells is about 88%, and the PCE reaches 6.35% [32]. Due to their good permeability and optical capture performance, they have a good light-trapping effect and increase the photocurrent of solar cells, which has generated plenty of studies [34,35].

Results

Conclusion