Dependence of the Photocurrent of a Schottky-Barrier Solar Cell on the Back Surface Recombination Velocity and Suggestion for a Structure with Improved Performance

Abstract

Though Schottky-barrier solar cells have been studied extensively previously, not much work has been done recently on these cells, because of the fact that conventional p-n junction silicon solar cells have much higher efficiency and have attracted the attention of most of the researchers. However, the Schottky-barrier solar cells have the advantage of simple and economical fabrication process. In this paper, the effect of back surface recombination velocity on the minority carrier distribution and the spectral response of a Schottky-barrier silicon solar cell have been investigated and, based on this study, a new design of the cell with a back surface field has been suggested, which is expected to give much improved performance.