First investigation on CZTS electron affinity and thickness optimization using SILVACO-Atlas 2D simulation

Abstract

In this paper, we study the performance of Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) based solar cell. In our knowledge, it is for the first time that the FTO/ZnO:Co/CZTS structure is simulated using the SILVACO-Atlas 2D simulation. Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS), ZnO:Co and FTO (SnO2:F) layers have been deposited on glass substrates by the spray pyrolysis technique. The extracted physical properties such as thickness and optical parameters of CZTS layer are considered to create a new input data of CZTS based solar cell. The optimization of CZTS electron affinity and thickness is performed to have the best FTO/ZnO:Co/CZTS efficiency. The use of CZTS absorber layer with 3.99 eV electron affinity and 3.2 µm in thickness leads to higher efficiency of 16.86% which is very important in the development of new technologies and new solar cell devices.