Design of a highly efficient CdTe-based dual-heterojunction solar cell with 44% predicted efficiency

Abstract

In this article, we theoretically demonstrate highly efficient cadmium telluride (CdTe)-based dual-heterojunction solar cells (DHSCs) with incorporating cadmium selenide (CdSe) and antimony selenide (Sb2Se3), separately as back surface field (BSF) layer using SCAPS-1D simulator. The impacts of various physical parameters have been investigated in details on the photovoltaic performance of the designed cells. It is found that the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the pristine CdTe solar cell significantly increases by the use of CdSe and Sb2Se3 BSF layers. The optimized PCE of the CdTe solar cell increases from 21.29% for pristine SC to 31.11% with Voc = 1.15 V, Jsc = 30.66 mA/cm2 and FF = 88.57% owing to the use of CdSe BSF layer. On the other hand, the PCE of CdTe DH solar cell enhances to 44.14% with Voc = 1.05 V, Jsc = 49.23 mA/cm2 and FF = 85.71%, respectively by the use of Sb2Se3 BSF layer which is almost consistent with the detailed-balance limit of DHSC. These findings reveal that both the CdSe and Sb2Se3 could be promising BSFs for the fabrication of cost effective, highly efficient CdTe-based dual-heterojunction solar cells.