Efficiency Enhancement in Polycrystalline CdS/CdTe Solar Cell via Diffraction Grating and Engineering Absorber and Back Surface Field Layers

Malihe Mahoodi

doi:10.15628/holos.2018.7668

Abstract

In this paper, the effect of diffraction grating and engineering absorber and back surface field (BSF) layers on performance of a single-junction polycrystalline cadmium sulfide/cadmium telluride (CdS/CdTe) solar cell have investigated. At first, the electrical characteristics of reference CdS/CdTe solar cell is simulated and validated with experimental data of fabricated CdS/CdTe solar cell. In order to improve the maximum efficiency, a new structure with diffraction grating and engineering absorber and back surface field layers is presented. Furthermore, the effect of carrier lifetime variation in the absorber layer on the conversion efficiency of solar cell was investigated. It is found that diffraction grating and engineering absorber and back surface field layers can increase the conversion efficiency of the solar cell by about 1.02% and 6% compared with reference cell, respectively. Under global AM 1.5 conditions, the open circuit voltage, short circuit current density, fill factor and conversion efficiency of optimized solar cell structure are 1114 mV, 25.35 mA/cm2, 0.8856 and 25.022%, respectively.

Highlights

Solar energy can be converted using photovoltaics that can be made using crystalline materials, multiple-‐junctions, or polycrystalline thin films
We investigated the effect of step doping grading of absorption layer by creating a built-‐in electrical field in the cadmium telluride (CdTe) layer
Figure. 3 shows the performance of the proposed structure with step doping grading of absorption layer as a function of doping concentration of top CdTe layer

Summary

Introduction

Solar energy can be converted using photovoltaics that can be made using crystalline materials, multiple-‐junctions, or polycrystalline thin films. In order to further improve the performance of single-‐junction polycrystalline CdS/CdTe solar cell, we used diffraction grating and engineering absorber and back surface field (BSF) layers. Under AM 1.5 conditions, simulated structure shows an open circuit voltage of 988 mV, a short circuit current density of 22.14 mA/cm2, a fill factor of 0.823, and a conversion efficiency of 18%.

Results

Conclusion