Design and Simulation of an Environment-Friendly ZrS2/CuInS2 Thin Film Solar Cell Using SCAPS 1D Software

Abstract

In this research, we proposed new inorganic ZrS2/CuInS2 heterojunction solar cells based on 2D dichalcogenides material using SCAPS-1D software. Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are two-dimensional materials with outstanding semiconducting properties due to their high optical absorption coefficients, nontoxic nature, significant charge carrier mobility, and tunable energy band structures. In this study, eco-friendly solar cells having the arrangement Al/ZrS2/CuInS2/Au have been quantitatively analyzed. This simulation employed the absorber layer CuInS2 and the buffer layer ZrS2 with aluminum as the front contact and gold as the back contact. The impact of the absorber layer thickness, band gap, buffer layer thickness, acceptor density, defect density, series and shunt resistances, C-V, Mott–Schottky, and the operating temperature has been studied for the proposed solar cell structure. The best performance of proposed solar cell structure thickness, band gap, and donor density for n-ZrS2 is 0.3 µm, 1.7 eV, 1 × 1019 cm−3, and for p-CuInS2, respectively, 4 µm, 1.43 eV, 2 × 1017 cm−3. The suggested solar cell has a power conversion efficiency of 21.1% with 0.81 V Voc, 30.5 mA/cm2 Jsc, and 85.78% FF. The analysis reveals that CuInS2 absorber material and ZrS2 semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are potential materials for photovoltaic applications.